Mortensen and Ali in Green Book Photo: Courtesy of Toronto Film Festival |
The film, which stars Oscar winner Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortenson, is set in the Sixites. It tells the story of a black classical musician and the driver who takes him on a tour of the Deep South.
The festival prize is seen as marking out films to watch in awards season, with every winner of the accolade since 2012 going on to be nominated for an Oscar. Previous winners of the Academy for Best Film and the Toronto prize include The King's Speech and Slumdog Millionaire.
The second prize went to Barry Jenkins' adaptation of James Baldwin's If Beale Street Could Talk, about a woman striving to prove her fiance's innocence.
Third prize went to Alfonso Cuarón's semi-autobiographical Roma - which will screen at San Sebastian, New York and London Film Festival in the coming months, before being available to stream on Netflix.
Additional award winners are below:
People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award: The Man Who Feels No Pain, Vasan Bala
People’s Choice Documentary Award: Free Solo, E Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin
FIPRESCI Prize for Discovery: Float Like A Butterfly, Carmel Winters
FIPRESCI Prize for Special Presentations: Skin, Guy Nattiv
Eurimages Audentia Award for Best Female Director: Aäläm-Wärqe Davidian, Fig Tree
NETPAC Award: The Third Wife, Ash Mayfair
Toronto Platform Prize: City of Last Things, Wi Ding Ho
City of Toronto Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film: Roads In February, Katherine Jerkovic
Canada Goose Award for Best Canadian Feature Film: The Fireflies Are Gone, Sebastien Pilote
Best Canadian Short Film: Brotherhood, Meryam Joobeur
Best Short Film: The Field, Sandhya Suri