The biggest stars at the 2025 Toronto Film Festival hoped to bring delicate to tumultuous times at the seventh annual TIFF Tribute Awards on Saturday
The biggest stars at the 2025 Toronto Film Festival hoped to bring delicate to tumultuous times at the seventh annual TIFF Tribute Awards on Saturday night. Nearly every honoree mentioned the state of the world during their acceptance speeches, while also emphasizing that in times of strife, art is more necessary than ever.
“Even though we don’t really want to talk about it at this celebration of our industry, it is important to acknowledge the pain the world is feeling,” said Idris Elba while accepting the Impact Media Award. The star of Kathryn Bigelow’s upcoming film A House of Dynamite was being honored for cofounding the Elba Hope Foundation, which focuses on advancing equity through youth advocacy.
“I’m taking this award for us to remind ourselves to make an impact—make an impact on our world by feeling something, no matter where you stand on whatever conflict is going on in the world, feel something,” he added. “Our children, our children’s children, they need to know that we felt something.”
The fundraising gala, in partnership with Rolex, is held annually during the first weekend of the festival at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel. This year’s crop of nominees included Rental Family’s director Hikari, filmmaker Jafar Panahi, actor Lee Byung Hun, filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk, artist Kazu Hiro, and Emmy winner Catherine O’Hara. The festival, which is celebrating its 50th year, always gives a special spotlight to Canadian talent like O’Hara and the honorary chair, who this year, is Brendan Fraser. Frankenstein director Guillermo del Toro received a standing ovation when he accepted the Director Award, in part because he has made many of his movies in Toronto—including Oscar-winning The Shape of Water.
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