Harry Styles accepts his first acting award of the Oscar season

On stage at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Harry Styles is a true rock star, brimming with swagger and confidence in front of 20,000 adoring fans. But Styles, the actor, was quiet when he accepted an acting award for one of his first major film roles at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

Styles – a man of relatively few words – and the cast of “My Policeman” received the Ensemble award at the festival’s Tribute Awards on Sunday night.

“Thank you everyone here, on behalf of all of us, for this wonderful, wonderful award,” said Styles, who stars in the romantic drama as an undercover cop. “We all loved working on this film. And we hope you like it.”

And with that, Styles, holding the train of his co-star Emma Corin’s long black dress, left as quickly as they entered the Fairmont Royal York, where the annual gala is held.

But there were plenty of other A-listers to keep the three-hour fest going. Though the festival is still a few days away, Toronto held its fourth annual Tribute Awards, with honorees including The Whale star Brendan Fraser, director Sam Mendes, Michelle Yeoh and Hildur Guðnadóttir, the Oscar-winning composer of Joker. “Women Talking” and “Tar”.

And luckily for the TIFF organizers, the ever-charming Olivia Colman was next to take the stage after Styles and co. left. The Oscar winner was there to present Sam Mendes with the Ebert Director Award. But all she could say before the room went dark to play a reel of Mendes’ film highlights was, “It’s my pleasure to present Sam Mendes with the TIFF director award,” which caused her eyes to widen widened in shock. Get giggles from everyone in the audience.

Mendes, whose latest film Empire of Light is a touching ode to cinema screens and is screened at the festival, was greeted with a standing ovation. That was too much for the British director.

“It was completely unnecessary,” he said.

Since the event will not be televised, Mendes joked that he could talk as long as he wanted. Indeed, the director of “American Beauty” and “Skyfall” gave a lengthy speech about his career and working with talents like cinematographer Roger Deakins. He attributed his career to more than just his work. “You need a hell of a lot of luck too.”

Michelle Yeoh inspired the second standing “O” of the night. Before she reached the podium, everyone in the ballroom had risen to applaud the celebrated actor. She received the evening’s Share Her Journey Groundbreaker Award, which was accompanied by clips from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Crazy Rich Asians, and other popular films from her iconography.

As she looks at the compilation of her work, she says, “It reminds me how long I’ve been doing this. The nicks, bumps, scratches along the way.” But she adds: “Despite all the challenges, I enjoy every moment. I hope to be able to do this for many years to come.”

During her speech, Yeoh called on the entertainment industry to amplify women’s voices, saying, “As women, we are privileged to work in one of the most open-minded and forward-thinking industries. And yet women are still grossly underrepresented in the top positions in our industry. Also, it has to be twice as good [we’re] often compensated half as much.”

Another recipient of the evening, Oscar-winning songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie, spoke about the importance of casting Indigenous peoples for Indigenous roles. “It’s more important than just fooling white people,” Sainte-Marie said. “These people will bring all of their culture to your films. Can you imagine casting ‘The Sopranos’ without Italians?”

Later, during a dessert break, Fraser reunited with Yeoh, his The Mummy 3 co-star. At a table at the front of the room, Colman and Mendes were holding court as admirers approached them to praise their work.

Sunday night’s event continued an emotional start to the awards season for Fraser, who broke down in tears at the world premiere of “The Whale” in Venice. His performance as a 600-pound gay man confined to a wheelchair is expected to put him at the top of this year’s Oscar race for best actor. His performance was equally applauded at TIFF (although the standing ovation was slightly shorter).

At Sunday’s ceremony, Fraser again appeared visually emotional as Aronofsky introduced him by saying, “We need more people like Brendan Fraser, the man and the actor.”

For Fraser, The Whale marks a career resurgence as his first major film role in years. He thanked the fans (“It’s the audience that brings cinema to life,” he says) for “keeping me in the job I love.”

“Art is about taking a risk and you should know that [Aronofsky and screenwriter Samuel D. Hunter] gave me a chance and I will forever be grateful to them,” he said. “‘The Whale’ is a redemption story.”

With his trophy in hand, Fraser remarked, “This is new to me. I’m usually the guy on the podium who hands out these things.”

But it looks like Fraser is having to adjust to being in the spotlight, at least so far.