Come See Me in the Good Light is the best documentary of 2025 according to the Toronto Film Critics Association. The documentary directed by Ryan White won the Allan King Documentary Award during the Toronto critics’ vote on Sunday. Come See Me in the Good Light offers an intimate portrait of poet Andrea Gibson following a terminal cancer diagnosis as they vow to cherish every day with partner Megan Falley. The Apple documentary had its Canadian premiere at Toronto’s Hot Docs where it won the overall Audience Award and topped the rankings for every day of the festival. POV recently named it the best documentary of the year.
Runners-up for the TFCA’s documentary prize were Orwell: 2+2=5, directed by Raoul Peck, and The Tale of Silyan, directed by Tamara Kotevska. The former offers a timely biography of the British writer and the ongoing resonance of his work, while the latter observes a Macedonian farmer and the storks intimately connected to his fate amid times of economic precariousness.
Additionally, the Toronto critics unveiled the three nominees for this year’s Rogers Best Canadian Documentary Award. The nominees are Endless Cookie, directed by Seth Scriver and Pete Scriver; Ghosts of the Sea, directed by Virginia Tangvald; and Who Killed the Montreal Expos?, directed by Jean-François Poisson.
Endless Cookie offers an animated yarn about the two half-brothers—one white, one Indigenous—as they explore oral histories through a whacky animated lens. The film won the TFCA’s Best Animated Feature Award in Sunday’s vote. NFB doc Ghosts of the Sea observes Tangvald as she navigates her family’s tragic history in turbulent waters with hopes to heal a haunting past. Netflix’s Who Killed the Montreal Expos? considers the fate of the beloved baseball team in a nation that struggles to protect its own sports franchises. Winners for the Rogers Best Canadian Documentary Award will be revealed at the TFCA’s gala on March 2nd at the OMNI King Edward Hotel in Toronto. The prize carries a $50,000 purse for the winners with runners-up receiving $5,000.
The group also revealed the nominees for Rogers Best Canadian Film, which also awards a $50,000 prize to the director. Nominees are Blue Heron, directed by Sophy Romvari; Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, directed by Matthew Johnson; and The Shrouds, directed by David Cronenberg.
The TFCA’s big winner of the day was the anarchist revolutionary satire One Battle After Another, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The film won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Performance for Benicio del Toro. The latter was jointly awarded alongside Nina Hoss for her performances as a fiery academic in Nia DaCosta’s Hedda, a radical reimagining of Hedda Gabler.
The TFCA will share additional winners in the coming weeks including the Company 3 Luminary Award, the Jay Scott Prize for an emerging artist, and the Telefilm Canada Emerging Critic Award winners.
This year’s full list of TFCA Awards winners and runners up is as follows:
Rogers Best Canadian Feature nominees
Blue Heron, directed by Sophy Romvari (Blue Fox Entertainment)
Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, directed by Matthew Johnson (Elevation Pictures)
The Shrouds, directed by David Cronenberg (Sphere Films)
Rogers Best Canadian Documentary nominees
Endless Cookie, directed by Seth Scriver & Pete Scriver (Mongrel Media)
Ghosts of the Sea, directed by Virginia Tangvald (National Film Board of Canada)
Who Killed the Montreal Expos?, directed by Jean-François Poisson (Netflix)
Best Picture
One Battle After Another, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson (Warner Bros. Canada)
Runners-up: Hamnet, dir. Chloé Zhao (Universal Pictures Canada); Sinners, dir. Ryan Coogler (Warner Bros. Canada)
Best Director
Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another (Warner Bros. Canada)
Runners-up: Ryan Coogler, Sinners (Warner Bros. Canada); Oliver Laxe, Sirāt (Elevation Pictures)
Best Original Screenplay
Ryan Cooogler, Sinners (Warner Bros. Canada)
Runners-up: Marty Supreme – Josh Safdie, Ronald Bronstein (Elevation Pictures); Sentimental Value – Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt (Elevation Pictures)
Adapted Screenplay
One Battle After Another – Paul Thomas Anderson (Warner Bros. Canada)
Runners-up: Chloé Zhao, Maggie O’Farrell, Hamnet (Universal Pictures Canada); Park Chan-wook, Lee Kyoung-mi, Don McKellar, Jayhe Lee; No Other Choice (Elevation Pictures)
Outstanding Lead Performance
Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (VVS Films); Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon (Mongrel Media)
Runners-up: Jessie Buckley, Hamnet (Universal Pictures Canada); Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another (Warner Bros. Canada); Michael B. Jordan, Sinners (Warner Bros. Canada); Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent (Elevation Pictures)
Outstanding Supporting Performance
Benicio del Toro, One Battle After Another (Warner Bros. Canada); Nina Hoss, Hedda (Amazon Studios)
Runners-up: Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein (Netflix); Amy Madigan, Weapons (Warner Bros. Canada); Sean Penn, One Battle After Another (Warner Bros. Canada); Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value (Elevation Pictures)
Breakthrough Performance
Abou Sangaré, Souleymane’s Story (Kino Lorber)
Runners-up: Miles Caton, Sinners (Warner Bros. Canada); Chase Infinti, One Battle After Another (Warner Bros. Canada)
Outstanding Lead Performance in a Canadian Film
Joan Chen, Montreal, My Beautiful (Filmoption International)
Runners-up: Deragh Campbell, Measures for a Funeral (Vortex Media); Vincent Cassel, The Shrouds (Sphere Films)
Outstanding Supporting Performance in a Canadian Film
Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Sweet Angel Baby (Vortex Media)
Runners-up: Charlotte Aubin, Montreal, My Beautiful (Filmoption International); Troy Kotsur, In Cold Light (Elevation Pictures)
Allan King Documentary Award
Come See Me in the Good Light, dir. Ryan White (Apple Original Films)
Runners-up: Orwell: 2+2=5, dir. Raoul Peck (Elevation Pictures); The Tale of Silyan, dir. Tamara Kotevska (Sherry Media Group/National Geographic Documentary Films)
Best Animated Feature
Endless Cookie, dir. Seth Scriver, Pete Scriver (Mongrel Media)
Runners-up: KPop Demon Hunters, dir. Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans (Netflix); Space Cadet, dir. Kid Koala (Les Films Opale)
Best International Feature
Sirāt, dir. Oliver Laxe (Elevation Pictures)
Runners-up: It Was Just an Accident, dir. Jafar Panahi (Elevation Pictures); The Secret Agent, dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho (Elevation Pictures)
Best First Feature
Blue Heron, dir. Sophy Romvari (Blue Fox Entertainment)
Runners-up: Eephus, dir. Carson Lund (Vortex Media); Sorry Baby, dir. Eva Victor (VVS Films)
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