‘La Bola Negra’ Wins the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival People’s Choice Award

The Spanish epic was already a hit out of its Cannes premiere, but now it's firmly launched into the heart of this year's awards season. Plus: check out the full list of winners.

That’s a wrap on 11 days of the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival, as the annual event came to a starry close with this morning’s awards ceremony. As ever, the show played out both live in Toronto and on streaming for anyone not in the immediate vicinity (or, like this tired writer, already home from the festival).

Per tradition, most of the buzz around the ceremony is heady anticipation for the announcement of the People’s Choice Award winner. This year’s winner: Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi’s ambitious epic “La Bola Negra.” The film was already a smash hit out of its Cannes premiere, but with this TIFF win, the Netflix stunner launches straight into the heart of this year’s awards season.

Real TIFF fans know: A win here is a big deal, especially in these early days of the 2026 – 2027 film awards season. Thirteen of the last 16 People’s Choice Award winners at TIFF went on to receive Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, and four of them (“The King’s Speech,” “12 Years a Slave,” “Green Book,” and “Nomadland”) actually won the award. Last year, “Hamnet” filmmaker Chloé Zhao became the first director to win the award twice.

All feature films and series in TIFF’s Official Selection are eligible for these awards, which are (as the name implies) chosen by the audience itself. The four audience-voted awards include the People’s Choice Award, the People’s Choice Documentary Award, the People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award, and the International People’s Choice Award.

Today’s ceremony also included the presentation of various juried awards, including the Platform Award, the Best Canadian Feature Film Award, the Best Canadian Discovery Award, the NETPAC Award, and the FIPRESCI Prize, along with three short film awards (Best International Short Film, Best Canadian Short Film, and Best Animated Short Film).

Watch a replay of the full ceremony below, which kicked off at 11 A.M. ET, and keep reading for a complete list of award winners from the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival.

People’s Choice Award: “La Bola Negra,” Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi; first runner-up “I Play Rocky,” Peter Farrelly; second runner-up “Being Heumann,” Sian Heder

People’s Choice Documentary Award: “Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been,” Barry Avrich; first runner-up “Black Sunflowers,” James Marcus Haney; second runner-up “The Ultra Runner,” Mila Aung-Thwin

People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award: “Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney,” Matthew Rankin; first runner-up “The Spiral,” Paolo Strippoli; second runner-up “Arrested Memory,” SABU

International People’s Choice Award: “Elsinore,” Simon Stone; first runner-up “Possible Love,” Lee Chang-dong; second runner-up “The Assassins,” Hur Jin-ho

Platform Prize: “Angh,” Theja Rio; honorable mention “Brace Your Heart,” Amanda Kernell

Best Canadian Feature Film: “Sunburn,” Serville Pobletel; honorable mention “Man in Motion: The Rick Hansen Story,” Adrian Buitenhuis

Best Canadian Discovery Award: “Smudge the Blades,” Cody Lightning; honorable mention “The Black Box Is Orange,” Yuula Benivolski

Short Cuts Award for Best International Short Film: “Mammalia,” Elia Kalogianni; honorable mention “The Spectacular Death of Prisca,” Kaelo Iyizoba

Short Cuts Award for Best Canadian Short Film: “Fight Kid,” Michael Del Monte; honorable mention “Almost Pink,” Justine Prince

Short Cuts Award for Best Animated Film: “Into the Betaverse,” Varun Raman and Tom Hancock; honorable mention “The Terminal,” Alexandre Siqueira

NETPAC: “Thirteen in Gaza,” Hosam Abu Dan

International Critics’ Prize (FIPRESCI Prize) Dedicated to Emerging Filmmaker: “Ancestors,” David Turpin