'La Bola Negra' Wins 2026 TIFF People's Choice Award — SkimNews
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- 'La Bola Negra' directed by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi won the 2026 TIFF People's Choice Award, with the Netflix film entering awards season fresh off a smash Cannes premiere
- 13 of the last 16 TIFF People's Choice Award winners went on to receive Best Picture Oscar nominations, and four of them — 'The King's Speech,' '12 Years a Slave,' 'Green Book,' and 'Nomadland' — actually won the Academy Award
- 'I Play Rocky' by Peter Farrelly took first runner-up and 'Being Heumann' by Sian Heder was second runner-up in the audience vote
- 'Elsinore' by Simon Stone won the International People's Choice Award, with Lee Chang-dong's 'Possible Love' as first runner-up
- 'Darlene Love: I Know Where I've Been' by Barry Avrich won the People's Choice Documentary Award, while 'Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney' by Matthew Rankin took the Midnight Madness prize
- 'Angh' by Theja Rio won the Platform Prize, 'Sunburn' by Serville Pobletel took Best Canadian Feature Film, and 'Thirteen in Gaza' by Hosam Abu Dan won the NETPAC Award
- Last year's winner Chloé Zhao ('Hamnet') became the first director in TIFF history to win the People's Choice Award twice
Why it matters: The People's Choice Award's historical track record — 13 of 16 winners earning Best Picture nominations, four winning outright — makes this an early bellwether for the Oscars, and the win gives Netflix a Cannes-validated prestige vehicle heading into the 2026–2027 race alongside the runners-up 'I Play Rocky' and 'Being Heumann.'
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