TIFF50: Jodie Foster, Guillermo del Toro, HIKARI, Lee Byung Hun Among Tributes, ‘No Other Choice’ Added to Toronto Lineup
Jodie Foster, Guillermo del Toro, HIKARI and Lee Byung Hun will be the TIFF Tribute Award recipients for the this year’s TIFF Tribute Awards at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival, it was announced today.
The TIFF Tribute Awards gala is an annual fundraiser to support TIFF’s core mission to transform the way people see the world through film. The event honors the outstanding contributions and achievements of leading industry members, actors, directors, new talent, and film artists of all kinds. Brendan Fraser, who was the 2022 TIFF Tribute Award for Performance for his work in The Whale (which would go on to win him the Oscar), is this year’s honorary chair.
This year, Two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster appears in the film Vie Privée (A Private Life), playing renowned psychiatrist Lilian Steiner mounts a private investigation into the death of one of her patients, whom she is convinced has been murdered. The entirely French spoken film debuted at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this summer. Foster is set to receive the TIFF Share Her Journey Groundbreaker Award presented by Joanna Griffiths and the Women of Knix. Vie Privée will be released in the U.S. by Sony Pictures Classics.
Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro returns to Toronto with his newest film, Frankenstein, an adaptation of the Mary Shelley novel starring Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth and Willem Dafoe. The film makes it North American debut at TIFF after its Venice premiere. He will receive the TIFF Ebert Director Award presented by the Tory Family. Frankenstein will be released in the U.S. by Netflix.
HIKARI makes her feature film directorial debut with Rental Family, starring Brendan Fraser about lonely American actor living in Tokyo starts working for a Japanese “rental family” company to play stand-in roles in other people’s lives. HIKARI TIFF Emerging Talent Award presented by Amazon MGM Studios. Rental Family will be released in the U.S. by Searchlight Pictures.
South Korean actor and singer Lee Byung Hun (Squid Game, KPop Demon Hunters) will receive the TIFF Special Tribute Award for his work in Park Chan-Wook’s No Other Choice, which will make its North American debut at TIFF.
The seventh annual TIFF Tribute Awards, in partnership with Rolex and supported by RBC, Don Julio, and Fairmont Royal York, will be held on Sunday, September 7, 2025 at Fairmont Royal York Hotel.
More information on the 2025 TIFF Tribute Awards, including more honorees, will be announced soon. Here is the schedule for upcoming announcements next week.
Tuesday, August 5: Centrepiece
Wednesday August 6: TIFF Docs
Thursday, August 7: Shortcuts & Primetime
Friday, August 8: Wavelengths & TIFF Classics
Tuesday, August 12: Schedule, including any final additions
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
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