'The Life of Chuck' wins the Toronto Film Festival's People's Choice Award

The Toronto International Film Festival's People's Choice Award went to “The Life of Chuck,” handing Mike Flanagan's Stephen King adaptation one of the most-watched prizes of the fall film festival circuit.

The award for “The Life of Chuck” was announced Sunday as North American's largest film festival drew to a close. “The Life of Chuck," based on King's 2020 novella of the same name, stars Tom Hiddleston as Charles “Chuck” Krantz, an ordinary man living through apocalyptic cataclysms. Mark Hamill, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan and Jacob Tremblay co-star.

TIFF's People's Choice Award is regarded as a reliable Oscar harbinger. Since 2012, every winner of the festival's top prize has gone on to be nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards. Last year, Cord Jefferson's “American Fiction” won, and went on to be a major awards contender.

But “The Life of Chuck” could test that track record. The film is up for sale and doesn't yet have distribution. It could be acquired and quickly readied for release this fall, or it might end up a 2025 release. “The Life of Chuck" drew mixed — though mostly positive reviews — out of Toronto, though audiences were clearly charmed by the uplifting drama.

Runners-up for the People's Choice Award, which is voted on by festival attendees, were both films that first premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May. The first was Jacques Audiard's “Emilia Pérez." The second runner-up was Sean Baker's “Anora,” the Palme d'Or winner at Cannes.

The audience award for top documentary went to Mike Downie's “The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal.” In the festival's Midnight Madness section, the prize went to Coralie Fargeat's “The Substance,” starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley.

Mark Hamill attends the premiere of "Wild Robot" at Roy Thomson Hall during the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, in Toronto. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Tom Hiddleston attends the premiere of "The Life of Chuck" during the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, at Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Chiwetel Ejiofor attends the premiere of "The Life of Chuck" during the Toronto International Film Festival, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, in Toronto. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)

The Pocket Queen, from left, Kate Siegel, Stephen King, Q'orianka Kilcher, Annalise Basso, Mike Flanagan, Tom Hiddleston, Karen Gillan, and Chiwetel Ejiofor attend the premiere of "The Life of Chuck" during the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, at Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Director Mike Flanagan attends the premiere of "The Life of Chuck" during the Toronto International Film Festival, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, in Toronto. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)

Stephen King attends the premiere of "The Life of Chuck" during the Toronto International Film Festival, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, in Toronto. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)

Tom Hiddleston arrives on the red carpet ahead of the premiere of the film "The Life of Chuck", during the Toronto International Film Festival, in Toronto on Friday, September 6, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — In a duplex in a quiet neighborhood of the Hungarian capital is the headquarters of a company that is linked to the manufacture of the pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria as part of an apparent Israeli operation against the Hezbollah militant group.

BAC Consulting shares the ground floor of the modest building in Budapest with other enterprises. On Wednesday morning, Associated Press journalists saw the names of multiple companies, including BAC, posted on pieces of printer paper and taped in a window.

In a corporate registry, the company listed 118 official functions, including sugar and oil production, retail jewelry sales and natural gas extraction.

BAC reportedly supplied the thousands of devices that killed at least 12 people, including two children, and wounded about 2,800 on Tuesday in a coordinated attack that Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed on Israel.

More attacks were reported Wednesday, when walkie-talkies and solar equipment exploded in multiple parts of Lebanon. The second wave of attacks killed at least nine people and wounded more than 300, the Health Ministry said.

The Taiwanese company whose brand appears on the pagers, Gold Apollo, said Wednesday that it had authorized the use of its name on the devices.

BAC was authorized “to use our brand trademark for product sales in designated regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are solely the responsibility of BAC,” Gold Apollo said in a statement.

A Hungarian government spokesman said the pagers were never in Hungary and that BAC Consultants merely acted as an intermediary.

“Authorities have confirmed that the company in question is a trading intermediary, with no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary. It has one manager registered at its declared address, and the referenced devices have never been in Hungary,” Zoltán Kovács posted Wednesday on X.

Hungarian national security services were cooperating with international partners, and the matter posed no national security risk to Hungary, he added.

BAC Consulting, which was registered as an limited liability company in May 2022, brought in $725,000 in revenue in 2022 and $593,000 in 2023, according to the company registry.

Its CEO is Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono, who describes herself on LinkedIn as a strategic adviser and business developer with a doctorate.

BAC could be an acronym, in the Eastern name order that is used in Hungary, for Bársony-Arcidiacono Cristiana.

The AP attempted to reach Bársony-Arcidiacono by email and social media sites but received no response. It was not clear what connection, if any, she or BAC had to the attack.

She describes herself as a physicist and a consultant for projects to solve environmental and political issues. She co-authored a paper in 2022 for a UNESCO conference on underground water management.

Among other positions, Bársony-Arcidiacono's LinkedIn page said she serves on the board of directors of the Earth Child Institute, a sustainability group. But the group does not list Bársony-Arcidiacono among its board members on its website.

She also writes that she is a strategic adviser for major international organizations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency and the CARE humanitarian agency, as well as for venture capital firms.

The IAEA confirmed that a person named Cristiana Arcidiacino was an intern with the agency for nine months in 2008 and 2009. The other relationships could not be immediately confirmed.

In an article featuring her on an online expert site, Bársony-Arcidiacono said: “A good understanding of local issues and a network of collaborators in various areas are important to succeed.”

The BAC Consulting website, which became unavailable Wednesday, describes the company's fields of expertise as “environment, development and international affairs.”

Phone calls to the number listed for BAC went unanswered. A woman who emerged Wednesday from the Budapest building housing the company's headquarters said the location is used as a service that provides addresses to companies. She would not give her name.

Social media accounts indicate Bársony-Arcidiacono studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science and the School of Oriental and African Studies. She has also posted published scientific papers on water ionization, climate change and other topics in the natural sciences.

An Instagram account features many of her “photos and sketches from around the world.”

“Sicily, Budapest, Paris, Africa, etc.,” it reads.

Associated Press Writer Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed to this report.

Előd Novak, a member of the National Assembly of Hungary, talks to the local media in front of a house where a Hungarian company that allegedly manufactured pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria, is headquartered in Budapest Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)

Előd Novak, a member of the National Assembly of Hungary, talks to the local media in front of a house where a Hungarian company that allegedly manufactured pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria, is headquartered in Budapest Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)

Előd Novak, a member of the National Assembly of Hungary, talks to the local media in front of a house where a Hungarian company that allegedly manufactured pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria, is headquartered in Budapest Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)

Előd Novak, a member of the National Assembly of Hungary, tries to enter to a house where a Hungarian company that allegedly manufactured pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria, is headquartered in Budapest Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)

Local media works around a house where a Hungarian company that allegedly manufactured pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria, is headquartered in Budapest Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)

This shows a sign featuring the names of several companies on the door of a house where a Hungarian company that allegedly manufactured pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria is headquartered in Budapest Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)