Harry Styles film to receive special award at TIFF

August 10, 2022 Queer Forty Staff 3 min read

Buzz has been steadily growing for the queer love story My Policeman which has only been compounded with the announcement that the cast — Harry Styles, Emma Corrin, Gina McKee, Linus Roache, David Dawson, and Rupert Everett — will be honored with the TIFF Tribute Award for Performance presented by Polestar.

The announcement came form Cameron Bailey, the CEO of TIFF earlier this week.

Now in its fourth year, the TIFF Tribute Awards presented by BVLGARI will return to an in-person gala fundraiser during the 47th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday, September 11, at Fairmont Royal York Hotel. As previously announced, My Policemanby director Michael Grandage will have its World Premiere at this year’s Festival.

“When your film shifts through time and across fluid boundaries of love and desire, you need a cast that can embody those nuances in every gesture,” said Bailey. “Harry Styles, Emma Corrin, and David Dawson deliver beautiful, mirrored performances with Linus Roache, Gina McKee, and Rupert Everett. We’re thrilled to honor the ensemble cast of My Policeman with the TIFF Tribute Award for Performance.”

Adapted for the screen by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Ron Nyswaner from Bethan Roberts’ award-winning novel of the same name, Prime Video’s My Policeman follows three young people — policeman Tom (Styles), teacher Marion (Corrin), and museum curator Patrick (Dawson) — as they embark on an emotional journey in 1950s Britain. Flashing forward to the 1990s, Tom (Roache), Marion (McKee), and Patrick (Everett) are still reeling with longing and regret, but now they have one last chance to repair the damage of the past. Grandage carves a visually transporting, heart-stopping portrait of three people caught up in the shifting tides of history, liberty, and forgiveness.

For the first time ever, the TIFF Tribute Award for Performance will be celebrating an ensemble cast in the now gender-neutral acting category. This is the first of two performance awards to be announced. Past recipients honored in the prestigious acting category were Jessica Chastain and Benedict Cumberbatch in 2021; Kate Winslet and Sir Anthony Hopkins in 2020; and Meryl Streep and Joaquin Phoenix in 2019.

Harry Styles and Emma Corrin | Photo: Prime Video

The TIFF Tribute Awards have served as an awards-season bellwether, with past honorees Jessica Chastain, Roger Deakins, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Joaquin Phoenix, Taika Waititi, and Chloé Zhao going on to win awards on the international stage. The TIFF Tribute Awards honor the film industry’s outstanding contributors and their achievements, recognizing leading industry members, acting talent, directorial expertise, new talent, and a below-the-line artist and creator. The Awards event also serves as TIFF’s largest annual fundraiser to support TIFF’s Every Story fund, which promotes diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in film and TIFF’s core mission to transform the way people see the world through film. More information on the 2022 TIFF Tribute Awards event and this year’s honorees will follow in the coming weeks.

My Policeman is scheduled for theatrical release on October 21^,followed by a global streaming debut on Prime Video starting November 4.