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"Tsotsi." |
TORONTO -- In one of the closest votes in years, South African filmaker Gavin Hood's powerful ghetto drama Tsotsi won the People's Choice Award yesterday at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The ebullient Hood was literally bouncing with joy after the announcement, bounding up to the stage at the Hilton Hotel ballroom to proclaim that his filmfest run was "just an unbelievable experience for me."
Praising Canadian film audiences for their courtesy, intelligence and caring, Hood offered "a huge thank you!" and said his film needed this international launch. "To the people of Toronto and to the people of the festival, thank you for getting our film out into the world."
Tsotsi, based on a novel by acclaimed South African writer Athol Fugard, is the story of one man's epic struggle to tame his brutal violence in the wake of apartheid. "Tsotsi" means thug in the patois of the townships. The film is shot in the Tsotsi-taal language of the streets.
Fest co-director Piers Handling said the close vote this year inspired him to list the four runners-up for the People's Choice Award: Finnish director Klaus Haro's Mother Of Mine; American John Gatins' kids' drama Dreamer: Inspired By A True Story; Taiwanese-American Ang Lee's new opus Brokeback Mountain; and Romanian-French director Radu Milhaileanu's Live And Become, the astonishing story of Ethiopia's black Jews.
BEST SHORT
Aside from Hood's joy at being the People's Choice, the biggest burst of enthusiasm yesterday was over the Bravo!FACT Short Cuts Canada Award for best short. The prize, which includes $10,000 cash, went to the Canadian Film Centre's Renuka Jeyapalan for her lyrical drama Big Girl, starring Samantha Weinstein and Kris Holden-Ried. The Short Cuts jury included Rachel McAdams, a Canadian actress who is a rising Hollywood star, plus director Rob Stefaniuk and producer Lois Vossen. They all crowded around Jeyapalan to show support for the giddy 28-year-old Toronto filmmaker.
"I'm nervous," Jeyapalan told the audience, "so I want to keep this short and sweet -- like the film!"
HAD A BLAST
McAdams, star of The Notebook, The Wedding Crashers and Red-Eye, later told the Sun that she had a blast on the jury and considered the experience "to be a real privilege -- and I'd do it again in a minute."
Other awards handed out:
Montreal-born filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallee won the Toronto-CITY Award for Best Canadian Feature Film with his Quebec megahit C.R.A.Z.Y., which has already rocketed near the $6-million mark at the box-office in La Belle Province. His prize includes $30,000 in cash from the co-sponsors, the City of Toronto and CITY-TV.
Two films, one in French, one in English, scored a tie for the CITY-TV AWARD for Best Canadian First Feature Film. The co-winners were Vancouver filmmaker Michael Mabbott's The Life And Hard Times Of Guy Terrifico and Quebec director Louis Archambault's Familia. The winners will split a $15,000 cash prize.
Australian Sarah Watt's Look Both Ways took the Discover Award, which is voted on by up to 750 film critics who cover the Toronto filmfest each year.
South Korean drector Kang Yi-kwan's Sa-kwa took the FIPRESCI Award, which is selected by a panel of three film critics from the international critics' federation.
