Renee Zellweger reduced to tears by unprecedented standing ovation after Judy screening

Renee Zellweger was reduced to tears after the audience gave her a standing ovation like no other following a screening of her new movie Judy at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on Tuesday (10Sep19).
The 50-year-old actress stars as Judy Garland in the biopic of the late singer/actress’ life, with the movie already being tipped for Oscar success. And the latest sign Judy will sweep the board during awards season came following its most recent screening, where the audience stunned Renee with their emphatic response to the film.
“In 15 years at #TIFF I have never seen a standing ovation like the one for Renee Zellweger at Judy,” Variety’s Jenelle Riley tweeted.
After the crowd refused to cease their applause, a tearful Renee joked: “OK quit it – you’re messing up my make-up!”
“It (the clapping) only stopped because she made us,” Jenelle added on Twitter.
Following the screening, Judy was also met with warm praise from critics in their reviews, with Variety’s Guy Lodge writing: “The casting makes bittersweet sense. A onetime American sweetheart who relinquished the burdensome title, she plays Garland, with palpable affection and feeling, as one who’s been over the rainbow and back again.”
Meanwhile, Vanity Fair’s K. Austin Collins commented: “Judy isn’t visionary or perfect, but it convinces us of its ideas – and it’s a fine scaffolding for Zellweger, already a potential awards contender for reasons that seem obvious. What I hope doesn’t get lost in the inevitable awards melee – with the way it flattens films and actors into worthy or not, ‘likely’ or not – is a sense of how utterly idiosyncratic Zellweger’s performance is.”