Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction, a biting satire starring Jeffery Wright as a disillusioned academic, has won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) – a much-watched bellwether in the Oscar race.

Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical Belfast – a black-and-white family drama about the city amid the tumult of the late 1960s – on Saturday won the Toronto International Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award, a telling indicator of Academy ...