TIFF audiences showed their love for ‘American Fiction’ and ‘The Holdovers.’
Erika Alexander stars as Coraline and Jeffrey Wright as Thelonious "Monk" Ellison in writer/director Cord Jefferson’s "American Fiction." (Claire Folger/Orion Pictures)
Erika Alexander stars as Coraline and Jeffrey Wright as Thelonious “Monk” Ellison in writer/director Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction.” (Claire Folger/Orion Pictures)

Two films made in Massachusetts won the top prizes at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) this weekend.

“American Fiction,” which filmed scenes in Boston and the South Shore, leaves Canada with the prestigious People’s Choice Award—and the pole position in the race for the Best Picture Oscar. 

“The Holdovers,” director Alexander Payne’s heartwarming prep school dramedy, was the first runner-up in the audience category. Scenes were shot all over Massachusetts last winter. 

TIFF is long considered a solid launchpad for Academy Award hopefuls. Since 2012, every People’s Choice winner has landed a Best Picture nod. Past Oscar winners straight out of Toronto include “The King’s Speech,” “12 Years a Slave,” “Nomadland,” and “Green Book” by director Peter Farrelly, a Rhode Island native.

Sterling K. Brown in a scene from "American Fiction." (Claire Folger/Orion Pictures)
Sterling K. Brown in a scene from “American Fiction.” (Claire Folger/Orion Pictures)

Film studios use TIFF to unveil their contenders to audiences, influencers, journalists, and critics before their commercial releases. 

“American Fiction” hits local theaters on Dec. 15 in limited release, expanding on Dec. 22.. The movie stars Jeffrey Wright as a struggling novelist from Boston who finds sudden success after writing a satirical novel under a pen name that exposes the hypocrisies of the publishing world regarding Black fiction. Tracee Ellis Ross, John Ortiz, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, Adam Brody, Issa Rae, and Sterling K. Brown co-star. 

Scenes were filmed last August and September at three locations in Scituate, including Sand Hills and Peggotty beaches. Other filming locations were at the corner of Congress and A streets in the Fort Point neighborhood of Boston, outside the Brookline Booksmith on Harvard Street, and in West Roxbury.  

“American Fiction” is based on the novel “Erasure” by Percival Everett. It marks the feature-film debut for writer-director Cord Jefferson, an Emmy winner for penning the limited series “Watchmen.” Jefferson also wrote episodes for the NBC sitcom “The Good Place,” the hit HBO series “Succession” and the Netflix comedy “Master of None.” 

Dominic Sessa stars as Angus Tully, Paul Giamatti as Paul Hunham, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph as Mary Lamb in director Alexander Payne’s "The Holdovers."
Dominic Sessa stars as Angus Tully, Paul Giamatti as Paul Hunham, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph as Mary Lamb in director Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers.” (Seacia Pavao/Focus Features)

“The Holdovers” marks Payne’s first collaboration with actor Paul Giamatti since “Sideways” in 2004. The movie will be released locally on November 10 after opening in New York and Los Angeles on October 27.

The film is set during the holidays in 1970. Vintage cars and wide-collared clothing were seen in about a dozen locales last February when filming occurred in western Massachusetts and around Boston. Giamatti plays a curmudgeonly teacher at an elite New England boarding school forced to mind an intelligent and rebellious student (newcomer Dominic Sessa) unable to journey home for Christmas break. Da’Vine Joy Randolph (“Only Murders in the Building”) co-stars as the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam.

Shooting locations include Fairhaven High School, St. Marks School in Southborough, Chateau restaurant in Waltham, Continental restaurant in Saugus, Orpheum Theater and Faneuil Hall in Boston, Wakefield Bowladrome, Somerville Theater in Davis Square, Clinton Hospital and Strand Center for the Arts in Clinton. Scenes were also shot in Buckland, Cambridge, Gill, Gloucester, Groton, Medfield, Milton, New Bedford, Shelburne Falls, and Worcester. 

Dominic Sessa and Paul Giamatti as Paul Hunham in director Alexander Payne’s 'The Holdovers."
Dominic Sessa and Paul Giamatti as Paul Hunham in director Alexander Payne’s ‘The Holdovers.” (Seacia Pavao/Focus Features)

The second runner-up for the TIFF 2023 People’s Choice Award was “The Boy and the Heron,” by director Hayao Miyazaki. Two other films with Boston ties also had world premieres at TIFF. “Dumb Money,” about how an amateur day trader from Brockton took on Wall Street, opens locally on September 22. (I’ll review “that “Dumb Money” this week. Spoiler alert: It’s good). “Finestkind,” a crime drama set amid the New Bedford fishing industry, will hit the Paramount+ streaming platform on a date to be named later.

“CODA” was the last Boston-shot film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture in 2022. “Spotlight” took home the gold statuette in 2016.

The 96th Academy Awards will be handed out on March 10, 2024.