The film, with Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley in the lead roles, tells the love story of William and Agnes Shakespeare and how the latter struggles to cope with the loss of her son Hamnet.
Other audience award winners were Guillermo del Toro's "Frankenstein", mostly filmed in and around Toronto, and the puzzle thriller "Wake up dead man: A knives out mystery", Rian Johnson's third film with Daniel Craig as the somewhat odd detective Benoit Blanc.
The people's prize at North America's largest film festival is usually an early indication of where the Oscar statuette for best film will end up, which was the case with "Green book" in 2018 and "Nomadland" (also directed by Chloé Zhao) in 2020.
The audience award for best international film went to Park Chan-wook's "No other choice" closely followed by Joachim Trier's "Sentimental value" with Stellan Skarsgård and Renate Reinsve in the lead roles.
