By Creative Media Times
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Director Martin McDonagh’s dark comedy drama “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” was a surprise winner at Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday, winning the Grolsch People’s Choice Award, the event’s top prize. First runner up went to Craig Gillespie’s “I, Tonya”, the Tonya Harding biopic which stars Margot Robbie.
‘Three Billboards’, which screened at the Venice Film Festival earlier in the month where it took best screenplay, stars Frances McDormand as a grieving mom whose daughter was brutally raped and murdered. She then decided to commission the titular three billboards to protest and find the killer after no arrests have been made.
Considered an early harbinger for paths to the awards season, the award is voted by the TIFF moviegoers. Winners and runners up films at Toronto in the past such as “Spotlight,” “12 Years A Slave,” “The King’s Speech” and “La La Land” have gone on receive Oscar nominations. For the past 10 years, only 2011’s winner “Where Do We Go Now?” failed to score an Academy Awards best-picture nomination.
Written by Martin McDonagh, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” also stars Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, John Hawkes and Peter Dinklage. The film is currently scheduled for a Nov. 10 release.
