37th Toronto International Film Festival Coverage: Day Eleven

September 16th, 2012 – by Ian Evans

Day eleven. The red carpets have been rolled up, most of the filmmakers and press have gone home. Another great festival is in the books and now it’s time for them to celebrate by handing out awards. The ceremony was held at the Intercontinental Hotel Toronto.

The Award for Best Canadian Short Film went to Deco Dawson for Keep a Modest Head. Honourable mention went to Mike Clattenburg’s Crackin’ Down Hard.

The City of Toronto + Canada Goose Award for Best Canadian Feature Film went to Xavier Dolan’s Laurence Anyways and earned the filmmaker a cash prize of $30,000.

The SKYY Vodka Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film was a tie between Brandon Cronenberg’s Antiviral and Jason Buxton’s Blackbird. Because of the tie TIFF decided to double the the prize, so both Brandon and Jason received a cash prize of $15,000 each.

The Festival welcomed an international FIPRESCI jury for the 21st consecutive year. The Prize of the International Critics (FIPRESCI Prize) for Special Presentations was awarded to Francois Ozon’s Dans la maison (In the House).

The Prize of the International Critics (FIPRESCI) for the Discovery programme was awarded to Mikael Marcimain’s Call Girl.

The BlackBerry People’s Choice Award is voted on by Festival audiences as they leave the cinemas. This year’s award went to David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook. The award offers a $15,000 cash prize and custom award, sponsored by BlackBerry. The first runner up was Ben Affleck’s Argo while the second runner up was Eran Riklis’ Zaytoun. The festival presented a free screening of the award-winning film Silver Linings Playbook at the Ryerson Theatre on a first-come, first served basis.

The BlackBerry People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award went to Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths. The first runner up was Barry Levinson’s The Bay and the second runner up was Don Coscarelli’s John Dies at the End.

The BlackBerry People’s Choice Documentary Award went to Bartholomew Cubbins (a.k.a. Jared Leto) for Artifact. The first runner up was Christopher Nelius and Justin McMillan’s Storm Surfers 3D, while the second runner up was Rob Stewart’s Revolution.

Added to the ceremony this year was the NETPAC Award for the Best First or Second Feature World or International Asian Film Premiere, as selected by a jury from the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema. The award went to Sion Sono’s The Land of Hope.

Finally, the inaugural winner of the Grolsch Film Works Discovery Award was Rola Nashef’s Detroit Unleaded, which was presented as part of the Discovery programme. Nashef was presented with the award which includes a $10,000 cash prize to put toward her next project.

And with that, the 2012 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival is wrapped. Special thanks to the publicists, programmers and especially the volunteers who welcome the world to Toronto each year. See you in 2013!