"The winner of People's Choice Award is [30 days of Happiness]."
When Chris Grant announced that, all the attention suddenly fell on the spot where the cast of [30 days of Happiness] was sitting.
Literally everyone in the room looked at them.
The director of [Blood Valentine] and [Dark] did the same. An independent movie with a debut director had won? With a younger cast at that.
The producer of [Buried Alive] was not even able to say anything. He had come here expecting to lose as [Blood Valentine] was the most likely winner but a dark horse had suddenly come up out of nowhere.
How could it be? Does that mean this musical rom com would go on to win the next Oscars?
All sorts of questions were in their mind.
It was truly a miraculous moment!
"A-Aiden, did Chris Grant really take our movie name or am I just hallucinating due to being too nervous?"
Leo turned to Aiden and asked. Besides them, Katie was already beginning to tear up.
"No, it's true. We won. We actually won!"
As soon as Aiden said that, thunderous applause rang out as everyone started clapping for them.
The reality finally started to set in.
They have won and there was no denying it. The movie had gotten the best audience review out of any other movie in the festival and had come out on top.
Slowly, they all stood up and walked to the stage. Their heartbeats were rising every second as they took a single step. Especially Leo and Katie.
Omar was also walking with them, showing a very confident expression like he had already expected it. He was a shrewd businessman and knew that he needed to show off a confident self right now.
This might be the big moment for his investment company.
As for Aiden, the incident with Aaron Hart had made him a bit blank but the applause slowly brought him back to reality. It was settling in that the movie he was the lead of had won a very prestigious award.
"Congratulations."
"T-thank you." Leo said as Steve handed him the trophy.
After taking him, he faced the whole audience and tried to remember the speech that he had remembered, in case they would win.
"Hello, everyone, first of all, I would like to thank the Toronto film festival for giving my movie an opportunity to showcase it to the people. I was very surprised when the movie was so well received by the audience and at this moment, I really don't know what to say."
His each word was hard to let out for Leo but he did. The audience smiled seeing him. He was a young director but they were sure that in the coming years, he was surely going to get more famous as a filmmaker.
"When I first pitched the movie to Aiden, the script was completely different." Leo glanced at Aiden as the audience whispered among each other, not knowing about this information. "He really helped me modify it and it became what you all saw. I'm extremely grateful to him as without him, this movie won't be possible."
Saying that, Leo passed the mic to Aiden who held it in his hands and wondered what to say. He hadn't really prepared a speech as mostly, directors or producers would address the audience after the win.
Taking a deep breath, he faced the audience.
"Thank you for your kind words, Leo." He glanced at Leo. "The thing is the movie has a lot of people's efforts behind them. From the crew to all my co actors involved with it. I could just be grateful that the audience liked it so much. Thank you!"
He finished it with that and everyone clapped.
With that, The Toronto film festival was truly ending. The surprising part of the whole festival was obviously [30 days of Happiness] which had managed to win people's attention when it was mostly considered a small movie at the start of the festival.
It was truly unpredictable!
***
After the winners' names from the award ceremony were revealed to the media, they were all in a big frenzy.
The winners of Jury awards were the same as what they had thought but the winner of People's voice award truly made them widen their eyes.
It was a victory for the dark horse.
Something that was very rare these days in Hollywood. So, the media quickly started to pour out articles after articles on the award ceremony.
At the same time, all of them were trying to contact the cast and crew of the movie, hoping to get more information about the movie.
<The end of the Toronto film festival sees a dark horse emerging out of nowhere to bag the most popular award at the ceremony.>
<Aiden Silvereye soundtrack and impressive characters make [30 days of Happiness] a rom com with watching. After a long time, Hollywood had produced a good romantic comedy that managed to struck a chord with the audience.>
<[30 days of Happiness] wins the People's Choice Award in TIFF. Is this movie going to shatter more expectations and go on to win the Oscars? Although it seems improbable, history does gives a lot of hint of it.>
<Eternal life movies bag the distribution rights of [30 days of Happiness] in North America. The studio CEO said that this movie would prove to be a surprise at the box office. No release date announced yet.>
<Director of [Blood Valentine] left disappointed as [30 days of Happiness] came out of nowhere to bag the award. Director Leo thanked Aiden Silvereye while taking the award. Is he the next big thing in Hollywood?>
<Aaron Hart nowhere to be seen during the award ceremony. Rumours say that he passed himself out due to too much alcohol right before the award ceremony. His movie [Blood Valentine] lost the award to [30 days of Happiness].>
***
As the articles were flooding the internet and the Toronto film festival award ceremony was trending on Sparrow, someone was gritting his teeth while reading the news on his phone.
He was Rodrigo Burke, one of the producers from Night Hawk studios.
Currently, he was sitting in a bar with some of the other producers from the studio, chatting about Hollywood and other work related gossip. It was then that the news of the award ceremony had broken out.
Naturally, he was stupefied when he learnt that Leo and his movie had won the award.
The movie that was going to be his!
"Rodrigo, this Leo Shaw. Weren't you working with him on the same movie? I saw him going in and out of your office a couple of times."
Suddenly, one of his friends who was also checking his phone asked. Others also looked at Rodrigo as they all knew it was true.
"Yeah, but the project fell out."
Rodrigo said, feeling both disappointed and regretful at the moment.
"Why?"
"Well, the thing is…" Rodrigo struggled to form words and in the end, decided to lie. "He doesn't have working morals and we have a lot of clashes. You know me, I only work with those who are good to work with. Not just anyone."
Although he said that, the other producers didn't find a lot of truth in his words. They all looked at him with sympathy and sighed.
"If only you had not let him go, you would be standing in Toronto, taking that award. Your career might have taken wings if that had happened."
A bespectacled producer said and Rodrigo couldn't help but curse.
'Bastard, I know that well.'
Despite cursing in his mind, Rodrigo maintained a smile on his face.
"It's in the past anyway. Anyway, I have read the script. It's no good actually. It may have worked in Toronto because the soundtrack turned out to be good but it won't work if released at the box office."
"Really?"
"Yeah, trust me, it will fail. Anyway, festival movies rarely work at the box office even with commercial factors in it. The cast doesn't have the star power to pull in people to the theatres."
Rodrigo said, believing his words more and more as he talked. After all, he was sure that Aiden and Katie aren't big enough actors to get people to watch the movie.
Even if it got an award, it was nothing extraordinary.
Several movies who get awards don't amount to anything at the box office.
He told himself all those words to feel better about his situation.
"You know after I told Leo I don't want to work with him, I searched up better projects and found a better one."
Rodrigo suddenly said, changing the topic.
"Are you talking about [Leap in the Sky]? Ain't that your next movie?"
"Yeah, if I had sent it to Toronto, it would have won the award too. Sadly, it's still in the editing phase currently and we are going to release it anytime around October or November."
"The release date ain't fixed?"
"No, I'm being careful to not clash with big movies. You know the market these days. Anyway, when it releases, I'm pretty sure it will earn way better than [30 days of Happiness]."
Confidence was clear in Rodrigo's words. Even if he regretted losing over [30 days of Happiness] in his heart, he truly believed that [Leap in the Sky] was a way better movie than it.
He had poured his everything in the movie and had even gotten big actors with great star power to star in it.
In his heart, he believed that when it would release, it would become one of the highest rated rom com.
...
