Four more honorees have been named to receive a TIFF Tribute Award at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Academy Award–nominated and renowned British filmmaker Mike Leigh will be honored with the TIFF Ebert Director Award. Canadian rising star Durga Chew-Bose will garner the TIFF Emerging Talent Award presented by Amazon MGM Studios; this award is in the spirit of Torontonian Mary Pickford, the groundbreaking actor, producer, and co-founder of United Artists, whose impact continues today. And French songwriting and composing duo Camille Dalmais and Clément Ducol will be presented with the TIFF Variety Artisan Award for composing the soundtrack for Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez, a Netflix film; the award recognizes distinguished creatives who have excelled at their craft and made an outstanding contribution to cinema and entertainment.
This latest group of recipients will be honored alongside the recently announced Amy Adams, Cate Blanchett, and David Cronenberg at the TIFF Tribute Awards gala fundraiser on Sunday, September 8, at Fairmont Royal York Hotel, with Sandra Oh serving as honorary chair.
“It’s a true honor to welcome Mike Leigh back to the Festival and present him with the TIFF Ebert Director Award,” said TIFF’s Cameron Bailey. “Leigh has long been acknowledged as one of cinema’s great artists; Roger Ebert himself praised Leigh’s ‘sympathy, penetrating observation, and instinct for human comedy.’ Hard Truths is both a summation of that work and a bold move forward. We’re also excited to honor Canadian filmmaker Durga Chew-Bose with the TIFF Emerging Talent Award. Her feature debut, Bonjour Tristesse, reimagines the classic film with arresting imagery and insight into character. And in a bountiful year of music in film, Camille Dalmais and Clément Ducol’s Emilia Pérez compositions stand out for their passion and vitality. We’re pleased to present them with the TIFF Variety Artisan Award.”
Leigh returns to the 49th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival for the world premiere of his 23rd film, Hard Truths, screening as part of the Special Presentations program. He reunites with Academy Award nominee Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Secrets & Lies) to create a challenging but ultimately compassionate, intimate study of a modern family life. Hard Truths is distributed by Bleecker Street in the U.S. and by Mongrel Media in Canada. Leigh has had eight films in official selection at the Festival, including Another Year, Happy-Go-Lucky, and Mr. Turner. Named after legendary film critic Roger Ebert, the Award has gone to celebrated visionaries such as Martin Scorsese, Claire Denis, Ava DuVernay, Wim Wenders, and the late Agnès Varda. Past recipients who received the TIFF Ebert Director Award since the TIFF Tribute Awards were introduced include Spike Lee in 2023; Sam Mendes in 2022; Denis Villeneuve in 2021; Chloé Zhao in 2020; and Taika Waititi in 2019.
Montreal-based Chew-Bose is making her feature film debut as both director and screenwriter of Bonjour Tristesse, which will have its world premiere in the Discovery program. This contemporary adaptation of late French author Françoise Sagan’s 1954 novel of the same name stars Chloë Sevigny and Claes Bang. Bonjour Tristesse is distributed by Elevation Pictures in Canada. Previous recipients of the TIFF Emerging Talent Award include Carolina Markowicz in 2023; Sally El Hosaini in 2022; Danis Goulet in 2021; Tracey Deer in 2020; and Mati Diop in 2019.
Dalmais (Corsage, TIFF ’22) and Ducol (Little Tickles) are prominent figures in the French music scene, often collaborating to create innovative and experimental works. Dalmais, known for her unique vocal style and blending of pop, folk, and avant-garde elements, has gained acclaim with albums like Le Sac des Filles and Le Fil. Ducol, a versatile musician, arranger, and producer, enhances her projects with his creative arrangements and musical expertise. Together, they form a dynamic duo, pushing the boundaries of contemporary French music. Previous recipients of the TIFF Variety Artisan Award include Łukasz Żal in 2023; Hildur Guðnadóttir in 2022; Ari Wegner in 2021; Terence Blanchard in 2020; and Roger Deakins in 2019.
Now in its sixth year, the Tribute Awards ceremony is TIFF’s largest fundraiser, with proceeds going towards TIFF’s Every Story Fund, which champions diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in film.
The Tribute Awards have served as an awards-season bellwether, honoring the film industry’s outstanding contributors and their achievements, with past honorees Colman Domingo, Michelle Yeoh, Brendan Fraser, Jessica Chastain, Roger Deakins, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Joaquin Phoenix, Taika Waititi, and Chloé Zhao going on to win awards on the international stage.
Mike Leigh
Writer-director Leigh’s first feature film was Bleak Moments (1971). This was followed by eight full-length television films, including Nuts in May (1976) and Meantime (1983).
Other feature films are High Hopes (1988), Life Is Sweet (1991), Naked (1993), Secrets & Lies (1996), Career Girls (1997), Topsy-Turvy (1999), All or Nothing (2002), Vera Drake (2004), Happy-Go-Lucky (2008), Another Year (2010), Mr. Turner (2014), Peterloo (2018), and Hard Truths (2024).
Awards include the Palme d’Or at Cannes, the Golden Lion at Venice, several BAFTAs, and seven Oscar nominations.
Leigh has written and directed over 20 stage plays, including Abigail’s Party (1977).
Durga Chew-Bose
Chew-Bose is a writer, editor, and filmmaker living in Montreal. She is the author of Too Much and Not the Mood, a collection of essays published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2017. Her work has appeared in Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, The Globe and Mail, and Harper’s Bazaar. She’s written catalogue essays on a variety of artists including Agnes Martin, Nicole Eisenman, and Wolfgang Tillmans. Prior to making Bonjour Tristesse, her feature film directorial debut, Chew-Bose’s film writing and interviews have focused on a range of international directors, from Abbas Kiarostami to Mia Hansen-Løve, Mike Leigh, Olivier Assayas, and many more. She is a devoted cinephile and has spoken on the works of masters of the craft from Michelangelo Antonioni to Hou Hsiao-hsien at numerous screening retrospectives around the world.
Camille Dalmais
Dalmais, known as Camille, was born in Paris. Passionate about bossa and musicals, she took singing lessons and, at the age of 20, participated in the vocal workshops of the British singer Julie Tippetts. She released her first album, Le sac des filles, in 2002, while still a student at the Institut d’études politiques de Paris.
In 2005, she was awarded two Victoires de la musique as well as the Prix Constantin for her second album, Le Fil. Between 2009 and 2018, Dalmais won three more Victoires de la musique for her sensitive, unique, and critically acclaimed albums. In her 20-year career, she has collaborated with a large number of renowned artists and notably had the opportunity to reunite with Bobby McFerrin on several occasions, on stage and to work on his opera project Bobble.
A versatile artist, Dalmais has also participated in numerous audiovisual projects. In 2007, Disney entrusted her with the end credits of its successful animated feature Ratatouille, for which she was nominated at the World Soundtrack Awards. Camille became interested in theatre and composed and performed the music for Henrik Ibsen’s The Lady from the Sea, directed by Claude Baqué. She then collaborated on several feature films, including Albert Dupontel’s 9 Month Stretch (2013), Raphaël Neal’s Fever (2014), for which she composed the entire soundtrack, and Mark Osborne’s The Little Prince (2015) with Hans Zimmer. She also composed the soundtrack for Géraldine Nakache’s I’ll Go Where You Go (2019). In 2016, Xavier Dolan’s It’s Only the End of the World was released in theaters, featuring Dalmais’ Home is where it hurts as the opening song. She directed her own feature-length musical documentary, Comme un poisson dans l’air, in 2021. In 2022, in collaboration with Clément Ducol, Camille composed the soundtrack for Emilia Pérez, Jacques Audiard’s latest feature film.
Clément Ducol
Ducol began his music career at the age of eight with Les petits chanteurs de Paris, a boys’ choir for which he sang around the world with the most prestigious musical ensembles. He also sang Yniold’s part in Peter Brook’s adaptation of Debussy’s opera Pelléas et Mélisande. Ducol studied cello, piano, harmony, orchestration, and percussion, and joined the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Lyon to pursue advanced studies in orchestration and percussion, and also trained in dance.
He later went on to work extensively as a music arranger, producer, and composer in fields spanning pop music, contemporary classical music, and cinema. Ducol has collaborated with some of the most acclaimed contemporary artists in France (Camille, Vincent Delerm, Alain Souchon, Christophe, Vanessa Paradis) and worldwide (Youn Sun Nah, Roni Alter, Melody Gardot, Gregory Porter, Lianne La Havas, Keziah Jones). He’s worked alongside Hans Zimmer on original songs for Mark Osborne’s The Little Prince, with Jeff Bridges, Mackenzie Foy, Rachel McAdams, and Marion Cotillard. Ducol’s additional works include Little Tickles, directed by Andréa Bescond and Éric Métayer, which premiered in competition in the Official Selection of the 2018 Cannes Film Festival and won multiple César Awards. In 2021, he collaborated with Leos Carax and Sparks on the César-winning musical drama Annette, which premiered at Cannes and starred Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard. He also scored/composed François Ozon’s Berlin International Film Festival opener Peter von Kant, an adaptation of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s play The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant. Ducol was recently nominated for best score and original song in Chicken for Linda! His latest work where he composed the score and original songs, alongside Dalmais, is for Emilia Pérez, directed by Jacques Audiard, starring Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, and Karla Sofía Gascón.
The 49th Toronto International Film Festival takes place September 5–15.
