The Oscars ceremony, postponed due to a pandemic, will only take place in seven months but the film
Nomadland
has just consolidated its status as favorite by winning the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) award on Sunday.
This melancholy road trip by Chloé Zhao, 38-year-old American director of Chinese origin, features the two Oscar-winning actress Frances McDormand, in the role of a broken woman who leaves everything to live on the road.
Crowned last weekend by the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival,
Nomadland
on Sunday won the Audience Award at the Toronto Film Festival, the biggest festival of the 7th art in North America.
He beat
One Night in Miami
, first finalist, for which the African-American actress Regina King went behind the camera.
Read also: The Toronto Film Festival rolls out its virtual red carpet
Nomadland
received rave reviews after its world premiere in Venice, followed hours later by a drive-in screening in Toronto and California.
The film is an immersion in the world of "van dwellers" ("inhabitants of caravans"), these Americans who live in their converted vehicle, doing odd jobs.
They meet in community, at random on their route, or on social networks (#vanlife).
The Toronto Film Festival was held this year in a reduced and largely virtual format with a few "drive-in" sessions for moviegoers in Canada's largest city.
Earlier this week, during a virtual gala, the festival honored the career of Chloe Zhao - who is also preparing a feature film for Marvel, Eternals - as well as the actors Anthony Hopkins and Kate Winslet.
Read also: Toronto, the rising festival
The Canadian festival, which awards only one audience award, has proven to be, over the years, a springboard for the Oscars.
Toronto's last eight winners have all been nominated for Academy Awards for Best Picture.
Two of them, including
Green Book
in 2019, were named Hollywood's Best Film of the Year.
Nomadland
was produced by the Searchlight studio, already behind the film
Jojo Rabbit
which also won the TIFF award last year, before winning the Oscar for best adaptation.
The next Oscars ceremony, postponed by two months because of the coronavirus pandemic, is scheduled for April 25.
