NEW YORK (AP) – Martin McDonaugh’s “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” has won the Toronto International Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award.
The British playwright’s film stars Frances McDormand as a mother who goes to war with police in her town after her daughter’s murder.
Toronto’s audience award is voted on by festival attendees and is considered a bell-weather for awards season.
Not since 2007’s “Eastern Promises” has a Toronto People’s Choice winner failed to score an Academy Awards best-picture nomination.
Many People Choice winners have taken home the Academy Awards’ top honor, including “12 Years a Slave,” ”The King’s Speech” and “Slumdog Millionaire.”
“La La Land” last year took Toronto’s big prize but it lost to “Moonlight” for best picture.
This year’s runner up went to the “I, Tonya” Tonya Harding tale.