*TIFF Recap recorded BEFORE the People's Choice Announcement*

See all of The Rolling Tape's TIFF 2026 coverage here.

By the time you're listening to this, the 51st Toronto International Film Festival will have wrapped up its 11-day run, which featured world premieres of Siân Heder's Being Heumann, Chris Rock's Misty Green, Peter Farrelly's I Play Rocky, and many more films coming off festivals like Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, and Venice. Famously dubbed the “People's Festival,” Toronto gives movie fans and critics the opportunity to see some of the most acclaimed films of the year.

This year, The Rolling Tape also had the privilege of having five of its members on the ground in Toronto: Cameron Ritter, Nadia Arain, Kasey Dunifer, Jacob Diedenhofer, and Evan Miller.

This year's winners have already been announced, with Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo's La Bola Negra taking the People's Choice Award, Peter Farrelly's I Play Rocky finishing as the first runner-up, and Siân Heder's Being Heumann finishing as the second runner-up. Since 2008, 16 of the 18 People's Choice Award winners have gone on to receive Best Picture nominations at the Oscars, with Slumdog Millionaire, The King's Speech, 12 Years a Slave, Green Book, and Nomadland ultimately winning Best Picture.

Today, we're going to recap some of the films that played, the reception they received, and what we think their prospects might be heading into the rest of awards season. We'll also bookend the episode with an abridged conversation about our post-fall Oscar predictions across several categories.