TORONTO \u2014 A controversial documentary about a retired Israeli general’s rescue mission on Oct. 7 has won the People’s Choice Award for best documentary at the Toronto International Film Festival.<\/p>\n
“The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue,” directed by Barry Avrich, drew competing pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel protests outside its single screening this week.<\/p>\n
The list of winners was emailed out on Sunday morning before TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey could announce it during a ceremony at the festival’s headquarters, the Lightbox.<\/p>\n
Avrich accepted the award to subdued applause during the ceremony.<\/p>\n
“Cameron, thank you, I appreciate everything that TIFF has done for us,” Avrich said.<\/p>\n
The film chronicles retired Israeli general Noam Tibon\u2019s effort to rescue his family during the 2023 Hamas attacks in Israel, when 1,200 people were killed and 251 abducted.<\/p>\n
Last month, TIFF said it pulled the film from its lineup due to security concerns and rights issues, prompting criticism from politicians, Jewish organizations and entertainment industry figures.<\/p>\n
The festival reinstated the film days later, and Bailey promised clearer communication around programming decisions.<\/p>\n
Reporters were told Bailey would not be available for interviews on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Some pro-Palestinian demonstrators called the documentary \u201cIsraeli propaganda,\u201d though they hadn\u2019t seen it.<\/p>\n
As the winner, the documentary was scheduled to screen Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the general People’s Choice Award \u2014 long considered a bellwether for the Oscars \u2014 went to “Hamnet,” Chloe Zhao’s Shakespeare origin story starring Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley.<\/p>\n
“Frankenstein,” directed by Guillermo del Toro, was named first runner-up, while Rian Johnson’s “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” was second runner-up for the coveted prize.<\/p>\n
The People’s Choice Award for the favoured film in the Midnight Madness program went to Matt Johnson’s “Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie.”<\/p>\n
The best Canadian feature award went to “Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband),” directed by Zacharias Kunuk.<\/p>\n
“Blue Heron,” a film from Toronto’s Sophy Romvari, won the best Canadian discovery award, a jury prize that goes to an early-career filmmaker.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2025.<\/p>\n
Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 A controversial documentary about a retired Israeli general’s rescue mission on Oct. 7 has won the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":226466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[86675,122463,84195,122462,171,53,122461,84278,85256,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-226465","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-barry-avrich","9":"tag-best-documentary","10":"tag-cameron-bailey","11":"tag-controversial-documentary","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-movies","14":"tag-peoples-choice-award","15":"tag-rescue-mission","16":"tag-toronto-international-film-festival","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115203390566022432","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}