Toronto ♥ Tom Hardy, "Carol" and "Phoenix"

The Film Experience loves Toronto. Not only is it home to the best festival, TIFF, but it's also full of Canadians and our own Amir Soltani. On top of those two pluses, the Toronto Film Critics Association includes great critics like Calum Marsh, Bill Chambers and Angelo Murrada (the latter two have guested on "Smackdowns" right here!). The TFCA was established in 1997 and gave their first Best Film prize to Atom Egoyan's brilliant movie The Sweet Hereafter. This year double prizes for Carol, Ex Machina, and Phoenix and a prize for Tom Hardy for playing double as the twin Krays in Legend.

Best Film Carol
Best Director Todd Haynes, Carol
Best Actress Nina Hoss, Phoenix
Best Actor Tom Hardy, Legend

This is the second year in a row that Tom Hardy has won TFCA's Best Actor prize. He took it last year for his solo act Locke. He really should attend their awards dinner as double-thanks. Or pop in on next year's live vote debate to put in his two cents about his successor.

Best Supporting Actress Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina
Best Supporting Actor Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Best Screenplay The Big Short, adapted by Charles Randolph & Adam McKay from the non-fiction book
Best First Film Ex Machina d. Alex Garland

Best Animated Film Shaun the Sheep Movie (Aardman) d. Mark Burton & Richard Starzak
Best Documentary Look of Silence d. Joshua Oppenheimer
Best Foreign Language Film Phoenix (Germany) d. Christian Petzold

Phoenix, one of the year's biggest foreign hits, took two prizes

The TFCA also hands out a Best Canadian Film prize but that one comes with nominations and is announced at their awards dinner. Here's hoping Closet Monster gets a nomination.

Comments

[Suzanne]

Yay for Nina Hoss! I just saw Phoenix this weekend and thought she was amazing. I still have to see a bunch of films, including Carol, but there's no way she wouldn't make my final Best Actress line-up.

[Amir]

Toronto loves you more, Nat!

[par]

next year: tom hardy wins for playing the three tenors

[guest]

Toronto is great, giving us TIFF, Cronenberg, Plummer, O'Hara, Polley, Gosling, McAdams, and some interesting, offbeat choices from their Critics awards... I loved their pick for Locke last year, but not sure about Legend... that's 3 Hardy performances in 2 years now?

[catbaskets]

Love the love for phoenix. Also, just had a "woah" moment when you me timed Hardy win it for Locke last year: that character seems so solid/mature compared to the krays, as if Hardy was aging in reverse. And how completely different could 3 characters be.

[Cris]

I still think the Academy will treat Ex Machina whe same way they treated Under The Skin and label the movie under "too weird".

[Ishmael]

I just saw "Legend" last week, here in Toronto, and was flummoxed that Tom Hardy was getting absolutely no attention from the American critics. Glad to see my city right this puzzling wrong.

[EBGB]

If 'Legend' had been about American criminals, it would have been a shoe-in for Oscar, even tho' it's an uneven piece. Ridiculous that Tom Hardy had to wait until 'The Revenant' for his first nomination, despite 'Bronson' / 'Locke' / 'Legend'. Plenty of actors have won for something less than any of those performances. Never ceases to surprise me how the Academy choose to ignore British films unless they're appropriately stereotypical ...