Branagh wins with Belfast – Entertainment at the Toronto Film Festival

(ANSA) – ROME, SEPTEMBER 19 -> Belfast, Kenneth Branagh’s most autobiographical film wins the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival 2021: a recognition that has proven in its history an almost sure antechamber for nominations and often Oscar wins (among other titles he has gone to in the last decade: The Positive Side, 12 Years a Slave, The imitation Game, Room, La La land, The Manifesti a Ebbing Missouri, Green Book, JoJo Rabbit and Nomadland) . “The first screening of belfast in Toronto was one of the most memorable experiences of my career – the actor and director made his debut in the thank-you video -. The fact that the Canadian public was related in such a profound way to the history of the film. it overwhelmed us, and brought Jamie Dornan (one of the protagonists) and me to live an evening of laughter and tears “. For the award “I am thrilled and incredibly grateful”. Scarborough by Shasha Nakhai and Rich Williamson (which also won the special mention of the jury of the Amplify Voices section and the Changemaker Award) came second in the rankings of the public who voted the People’s choice Award at the Festival, a coming-of-age story out of three children who grew up in a poor neighborhood in Toronto. In third place is Jane Campion’s The Power of the dog. (another strong contender for the major awards of the season, including the Oscars) already awarded at the Venice International Film Festival with the Silver Lion for Direction. Among other accolades, the People’s Choice award for best documentary goes to The Rescue by E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, while the Audience Award for the Midnight Madness section is won by Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or at Cannes Titane. Branagh’s with Belfast is “a homecoming” through a film he started writing in the first weeks of the lockdown. The British filmmaker, born in 1960, tells of his childhood in his native Northern Irish capital, which his Protestant family left in 1969 to move to England at the beginning of the first phase of the Troubles, the clashes between Irish Catholic Republicans and Irish Protestants. Unionists. Among the performers, with Dornan, Caitriona Balfe, Judi Dench, Ciaran Hinds, Colin Morgan, and Jude Hill in the role of the little protagonist, Buddy. “Working on Belfast for me was a return to a place of safety at a time like this in which we live in generalized uncertainty due to the pandemic – explained Branagh in the streaming meeting organized at the Tiff -. I wanted to go back to a moment in the which my relations with the world were defined, where I could be myself easily and it was impossible to get lost, even physically, since you knew half the city and in the other half there were people with whom you would surely have found some bond or knowledge in common “. The film “is also a thank you to all those who watched over me and helped me grow in those years”. Belfast also explores how the conflict in Ireland suddenly unfolded, upsetting the reality “we were used to. I felt like they were taking the ground out from under my feet, I started seeing barricades erected at the end of the streets where I was playing”. His family, “like many others, had to learn to navigate a completely new reality full of unknowns, something that I think we are experiencing even in this pandemic period”. Watching the film “I hope that the resilience, humor, pride and determination of the Northern Irish people will emerge, also demonstrated in supporting the peace agreement reached in 1998, leaving behind the pain of the past”. (HANDLE).