Harry Styles accepts award at Toronto International Film Festival

Singer-actor Harry Styles was soft-spoken while accepting an award for one of his first major movie roles at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.

According to Variety, 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 so much to everyone here, on behalf of all of us, for this wonderful, wonderful award," said Styles, who stars in the romantic drama as a police officer. "We all loved working on this film so much. And we hope you enjoy it."

Styles then hastily exited the Fairmont Royal York, where the annual gala is held, while carrying the train of his co-star Emma Corrin's long black dress.

Toronto conducted its fourth annual tribute awards, honouring stars including Michelle Yeoh, Sam Mendes, Brendan Fraser, and Oscar-winning composer Hildur Gunadottir of Joker, Women Talking, and Tar.

Fraser reconnected with Yeoh, his co-star from The Mummy 3.

The George of the Jungle star started the awards season on an emotional note, breaking down in tears during the Venice world premiere of The Whale. His portrayal of a 600-pound gay guy in a wheelchair is anticipated to propel him to the front of the race for this year's Best Actor Oscar. His performance was equally embraced at TIFF (though the standing ovation was slightly shorter).

At Sunday's Tribute Awards ceremony, Fraser again appeared to be 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 gives cinema life," he says) for "keeping me in the job that I love."

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

With his trophy in hand, Fraser remarked, "This is new for me. Normally, I'm the guy at the podium who hands these things out."

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