Toronto Film Festival Cancels Awards Ceremony

The audience award and juried competition winners will instead be announced via social media.

The 2019 Toronto International Film Festival for the first time will ditch its traditional, formal awards ceremony and opt to unveil its top audience award and juried competition winners via social media.

The People's Choice Award winners, voted on by TIFF attendees, have traditionally been seen as Oscar frontrunners. But this year, festival organizers have opted for the speed of social media to get the word out about its prize winners Sunday.

"TIFF made the decision to announce the award recipients via press release and social media channels. Communication of the winners can happen quickly," TIFF said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. In addition, the awards ceremony, at the tail end of the festival, takes place at a time when major trophy winners are rarely still in town to accept their prizes.

"Capturing them (prize winners) on social media allows them to celebrate their award and for audiences to share the moment!" the festival added. Peter Farrelly's Green Book, starring Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali, last year picked up the top People's Choice honor in Toronto before it went on to win the best picture Oscar.

And, in another break with tradition, Toronto will later today announce the winners of The Platform and FIPRESCI competition trophies, which in past years were handed out on the final Sunday.