There was much jubilation last night when Irish film, Room, picked up the coveted People’s Choice Award at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, considered the festival’s major prize.
In what is a non competitive festival, the award is voted on by audiences and is often an indication of things to come during Oscar season. 12 Years a Slave, Slumdog Millionaire and The King’s Speech all won the TIFF People’s Choice audience award and went on to win Best Film at the Oscars.
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ROOM has been a huge autumn festival hit, playing to standing ovations both in Toronto and at its world premiere in Telluride earlier this month.
Director Lenny Abrahamson said, ‘I am so honoured that ROOM has been chosen by the TIFF audience to win the Grolsch People's choice award. The program this year was full of extraordinary films, and for such a knowledgeable, film-loving audience to choose ours as their film of the festival is something of which I will always be hugely proud. It is a testament to the incredible talent and passion of all who made this film; cast and crew and those who backed us and had faith in us from the beginning. ‘
ROOM stars Brie Larson (Short Term 12, The Spectacular Now), Jacob Tremblay (The Smurfs 2, Somnia), Joan Allen (The Bourne Supremacy, Nixon) and William H. Macy (Shameless, Magnolia). Emma Donoghue adapted the screenplay from her book, the award-winning international phenomenon, ROOM.
Told through the eyes of five-year-old-Jack (Tremblay), ROOM is an emotional tale that celebrates the resilience and power of the human spirit. To Jack, Room is the world.... It's where he was born, it's where he and his Ma (Larson) eat and sleep and play and learn. But while it’s home to Jack, to Ma it’s a prison. Through her fierce love for her son, Ma has managed to create a childhood for him in their ten-by-ten-foot space. But as Jack’s curiosity is building alongside Ma’s own desperation – she knows that Room cannot contain either indefinitely.
ROOM will be released in Ireland & the UK on January 29.
