While the 50th Toronto International Film Festival was headlined by heavy hitting dramas, the most chaotic success story belonged to the late night crowd. Matt Johnson’s Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie captured the People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award, marking a definitive breakthrough for the cult favorite Canadian property.

The victory signals a major step up in scale for Johnson and co-creator Jay McCarrol. The film follows the duo’s delusional quest to book a gig at a local club and employs a high concept time travel hook. After a botched publicity stunt at the CN Tower, the pair accidentally find themselves transported back to the year 2008.

The project stands out due to Johnson’s trademark guerrilla filmmaking. The director seamlessly blends new footage with decade old archival clips and de-aging technology to create a meta narrative. This approach proves to be as technically ambitious as it is irreverent. It is a riff on the time travel genre filtered through the lens of the Toronto indie comedy scene, and it hit deep with the Royal Alexandra Theatre’s capacity crowds.

The win is particularly notable given the strength of this year’s international genre slate. However, Johnson has demonstrated an uncanny ability to translate his niche, improvisational style and has managed to scale his DIY roots into a viable theatrical property.