TIFF48: Andy Lau, Carolina Markowicz and Łukasz Žal to Receive TIFF Tribute Honors

The Toronto International Film Festival has announced additional 2023 TIFF Tribute Award honorees and they are multi-hyphenate Hong Kong artist Andy Lau, receiving the Tribute Award at the World Premiere Gala presentation of Ning Hao’s The Movie Emperor, in which he stars., award-winning Brazilian filmmaker Carolina Markowicz the TIFF Emerging Talent Award presented by MGM Studios and Two-time Academy Award–nominated Polish cinematographer Łukasz Žal the TIFF Variety Artisan Award, which recognizes a distinguished creative who has excelled at their craft and made an outstanding contribution to cinema and entertainment. Both Markowicz and Žal will be honoured on September 10 at the fifth annual TIFF Tribute Awards gala fundraiser at Fairmont Royal York Hotel, presented by Bulgari. The Toronto International Film Festival takes place September 7–17, 2023. 

This marks Lau’s first visit since he last attended the Festival in 2001. He will also be participating in the In Conversation With… (ICW) series on September 16. Lau is one of Hong Kong’s most popular entertainers, with a career spanning more than four decades and over 160 films in his filmography. He has received recognition from critics for his work in both television and film, with memorable roles in Ann Hui’s Boat People (1982), Wong Kar Wai’s As Tears Go By (1988), Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s Infernal Affairs trilogy, and reteaming with Hui in the hit drama A Simple Life (2011). Previous recipients of the Special Tribute Award include David Foster (2019) and Dionne Warwick (2021).

“We are thrilled to honour the remarkable talents and contributions of Andy Lau, Carolina Markowicz, and Łukasz Žal,” said Cameron Bailey, CEO, TIFF. “An industry icon and multi-faceted artist with an impressive filmography, Lau has paved the way for a generation of performers. Emerging Talent honoree Markowicz has an exciting future ahead as one of the most fearless directors of her generation, and Žal’s cinematography continues to evoke emotion in The Zone of Interest.” 

Confirming herself as one of Brazil’s clearest voices in current cinema, writer-director Carolina Markowicz returns to the Festival with the World Premiere of her second feature, Toll, on September 9. Following the acclaim of her 2022 dark and twisted comedy Charcoal, Toll is a film about a Brazilian mother who falls in with a gang of thieves in an attempt to keep her family afloat. Previous recipients of the TIFF Emerging Talent Award presented by MGM Studios include Sally El Hosaini in 2022; Danis Goulet in 2021; Tracey Deer in 2020; and Mati Diop in 2019. 

Žal, best known for his stunning cinematography in Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War and Ida, returns to the Festival with the Jonathan Glazer–directed The Zone of Interest. The film, adapted from a 2014 novel of the same title by Martin Amis, was awarded the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Entirely shot in Poland, Žal’s lens has a chilling effect — detached from the horrors of the prison camp, the camera captures the banality of the Höss family living their everyday life outside the walls of Auschwitz, contrasted by unforgettable reminders of resistance at night, and shot in monochrome by thermal-imaging cameras. Previous recipients of the TIFF Variety Artisan Award include Hildur Guðnadóttir in 2022; Ari Wegner in 2021; Terence Blanchard in 2020; and Roger Deakins in 2019.  

“Variety is honoured to be giving Łukasz Žal our annual Artisan Award at the Toronto International Film Festival,” said Jazz Tangcay, Senior Artisans Editor at Variety. “We have been fans of his work from Ida and Cold War and with his most recent film, The Zone of Interest, Łukasz continues to raise the bar for inventive and avant-garde cinematography.”

The Tribute Awards gala is TIFF’s largest annual fundraiser, having raised $1.3 million in 2022, and is presented by Bulgari, sharing their commitment to arts and culture along with TIFF. This year, the Tribute Awards gala will support the Viola Desmond Cinema campaign, which was launched through the Every Story Fund in 2022. For more information, visit tiff.net/tribute.