'Three Billboards' wins TIFF audience award

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Martin McDonagh's darkly hilarious drama "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" won the Toronto Film Festival's audience prize for best picture on Sunday, giving it a head start in the Oscars race.

The rage-fueled film stars Frances McDormand as a frustrated and grieving mother, Mildred, who antagonizes police (Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell) while trying to call attention to a lack of progress in the hunt for her daughter's killer.

In a statement, McDonagh called the win "thrilling."

"You never really know if a story as heartfelt but also as outrageous and funny and unusual as ours is has really connected to, you know, real people," he said.

Martin McDonagh holds the award for the best screenplay for "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" during the awards ceremony at the 74th Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, September 9, 2017. /Reuters Photo

Not since 2007's "Eastern Promises" has a Toronto People's Choice winner failed to score an Academy Awards best-picture nomination. Many People's Choice winners have also gone on to win the Academy Awards' top honor, including "12 Years a Slave," "The King's Speech" and "Slumdog Millionaire."

"La La Land" last year took Toronto's big prize but Damien Chazelle's musical ultimately lost to "Moonlight" for best picture.

This year's runner-up went to Craig Gillespie's Tonya Harding tale "I, Tonya," starring Margot Robbie as the former Olympic ice skater. In one of the festival's biggest sales, "I, Tonya" was acquired by Neon and 30West for $5 million.

The second runner-up was "Call Me By Your Name," Luca Guadagnino's Italy-set coming-of-age story.

More than 300 feature and short films from 74 countries were screened at the Toronto festival, the biggest in North America.

The event is often seen as a way for Oscar-conscious studios to generate buzz about their movies, with hundreds of filmmakers and actors walking the red carpet in Canada's largest city.

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Source(s): AP ,AFP