Tyler Perry may be a first-time writer-director at Toronto, presenting his movie A Jazzman’s Blues on Sunday earlier than it hits Netflix on Sept. 23, however he’s no TIFF beginner. 13 years in the past, Perry attended the fest with Valuableon which he and Oprah Winfrey served as govt producers.

Directed by Lee Daniels and starring Gabourey Sidibe, Mo’Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz, Valuable was primarily based on Sapphire’s novel Push a few 16-year-old (Sidibe) who’s twice impregnated by her father and seeks a recent begin at a brand new college. The movie first screened at Sundance, the place it gained the viewers award and grand jury prize for drama, plus a particular jury prize for Mo’Nique as Valuable’ abusive mom. Lionsgate execs known as Perry from Park Metropolis to ask him to board as a producer.

“They introduced it to me and I watched it and I known as Oprah and stated, ‘You’ve obtained to look at this movie,’ and he or she stated, ‘I’ve obtained it, I’ve had it for a month,’” Perry recalled to THR. “Then we had been like, ‘What can we do to make this movie attain an viewers?’ “

It gained TIFF’s individuals’s alternative award and scored six Oscar nominations (together with for finest image), with wins for tailored screenplay and supporting actress for Mo’Nique. Valuable stays true to its title for these concerned; Daniels and Mo’Nique publicly reconciled this 12 months after an extended feud, with the director gushing that the movie “was God working by each of us.”