Could we be heading into an awards season dominated by Steven Spielberg? The legendary filmmaker is looking to recover from his West Side Story letdown at the Oscars with his first awards win of the 2022/2023 season.
Spielberg’s The Fabelmans won the People’s Choice Award at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. This marks Spielberg’s first win at this film festival, and his total of 152 major film awards win.
First Runner Up is Sarah Polley’s Women Talking. The second Runner Up was Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery [read our ★★★★★ review here]. The Documentary Award went to Black Ice, and the Midnight Madness winner was Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.
As for awards chances, this does help The Fabelmans quite a bit. TIFF People’s Choice Award has been won by such eventual Best Picture Academy Award winners as Nomadland, Green Book, 12 Years a Slave, The King’s Speech, and Slumdog Millionaire. While not invariably winners, the People’s Choice Award at TIFF also saw Best Picture nominations, including last year’s winners Belfast, Jojo Rabbit, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Room, and La La Land.
Although awards season is on everyone’s mind, it’s fair to assume this is also a personal victory for Spielberg. The Fabelmans comes at a very reflective point in the filmmaker’s career; this is his 33rd feature film and reaches sixty years into his career. This film is also dedicated to the memories of Spielberg’s real-life parents, Leah Adler and Arnold Spielberg.
SEE ALSO: Read our ★★★★★ review of The Fabelmans from TIFF 2022 here
“As I said on stage the other night, ‘Above all, I’m glad I brought this film to Toronto!’ This is the most personal film I’ve ever made, and the warm reception from everyone in Toronto made my first visit to TIFF so intimate and personal for me and my entire Fabelman family,” Spielberg said. “Thank you to Cameron Bailey and the incredible staff at TIFF; thank you to Universal Pictures, and a very special thank you to all the movie fans in Toronto who have made this past weekend one I’ll never forget.”
The film stars Gabriel LaBelle (The Predator, American Gigolo series) as 16-year-old aspiring filmmaker Sammy Fabelman; four-time Academy Award nominee Michelle Williams (Manchester by the Sea, My Week with Marilyn) as his artistic mother, Mitzi; Paul Dano (The Batman, There Will Be Blood) as his successful, scientific father, Burt; Seth Rogen (Steve Jobs, An American Pickle) as Bennie Loewy, Burt’s best friend and honorary “uncle” to the Fabelman children, and Academy Award nominee Judd Hirsch (Uncut Gems, Ordinary People) as Mitzi’s Uncle Boris.
The ensemble cast includes Oscar nominee Jeannie Berlin (The Heartbreak Kid, Inherent Vice) as Sammy’s paternal grandmother, Hadassah Fabelman; Julia Butters (Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood, 13 Hours) as Sammy’s sister Reggie; Robin Bartlett (Moonstruck, Lean on Me) as Sammy’s maternal grandmother Tina Schildkraut and Keeley Karsten (Hunters, Evil Lives Here) as Sammy’s sister Natalie.
The Fabelmans is set for release in the US on November 23rd and in the UK on January 27th, 2023.
