Mike Flanagan's new movie gets surprise awards win, and it might have just made it a Best Picture frontrunner

Mike Flanagan's The Life of Chuck could be on its way to a big Oscar victory, if its recent success at the Toronto Film Festival is anything to go by anyway...

The new sci-fi movie picked up the People's Choice Award at the event this year. In the past, Big Picture winners such as Green Book, 12 Years a Slave, The King’s Speech, Slumdog Millionaire, and Chariots of Fire have all picked up the same gong, which bodes well for its chances come the Academy Awards in 2025.

At the very least it looks set to get a nomination for the Oscar's most prestigious accolade, as previous People's Choice Award titles La La Land, The Fabelmans, Silver Linings Playbook, this year's American Fiction, and more did.

Based on a short story found in the author's If It Bleeds collection (alongside Mr. Harrigan's Phone, which inspired the 2022 Netflix flick), The Life of Chuck follows the titular Charles 'Chuck' Krantz (Loki's Tom Hiddleston) as he travels back in time to watch his life play out in reverse order after he dies. 

Having passed away from a brain tumor at 39, Chuck walks back through major events, before finding himself once again living in a supposedly haunted house. (Well, it wouldn't be a Flanagan flick without a little bit of spookiness now, would it?)

The film also stars Karen Gillan (Guardians of the Galaxy), David Dastmalchian (Late Night with the Devil), Chiwetel Ejifor (Doctor Strange), Mia Sara (Ferris Bueller's Day Off), Q'orianka Kilcher (Yellowstone), Harvey Guillén (What We Do in the Shadows), and Mark Hamill, who collaborated with Flanagan for the first time on The Fall of the House of Usher. Other frequent members of the Flanafamily appearing in the movie include Kate Siegel, Samantha Sloyan, Rahul Kohli, and Jacob Tremblay.

The Life of Chuck has yet to announce an official release date, but we'll be sure to keep you posted. In the meantime, check out our list of the best sci-fi movies of all time or our ranking of Mike Flanagan's Netflix shows for some viewing inspiration.