September 19, 2009

Precious wins the Cadillac People's Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival

Here's the press release, in part:

CADILLAC PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD

The Cadillac People’s Choice Award is voted on by Festival audiences. This year’s award goes to Lee Daniels’s Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire. From director Lee Daniels comes a vibrant, honest and resoundingly hopeful film about the human capacity to grow and overcome. Set in 1987 Harlem, it is the story of Claireece “Precious” Jones, an illiterate African-American teenager who is pregnant for the second time by her absent father and abused by a poisonously angry mother. Despite her experiences, Precious has a dream that other possibilities exist for her and jumps at the chance to enroll in an alternative school. There she encounters Ms. Rain, a teacher who will start her on a journey from pain and powerlessness to self-respect and determination. The film stars Mo’Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey, Sherri Shepherd, Lenny Kravitz and introduces Gabourey Sidibe. The award offers a $15,000 cash prize and custom award, sponsored by Cadillac.

First runner-up is Bruce Beresford Mao’s Last Dancer and the second runner-up is Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Micmacs (Micmacs à tire-larigot). The Cadillac People’s Choice Award presents a free screening of the Cadillac People’s Choice Award-winning film tonight. The screening takes place at 9 p.m. in the Visa Screening Room at the Elgin. Tickets will be available on a first-come, first served basis beginning at 7 p.m. at the Visa Screening Room at the Elgin. For more information on this screening, visit tiff.net.

New this year is a Cadillac People’s Choice Award for Documentary and Midnight Madness. The Cadillac People’s Choice Award – Documentary goes to Leanne Pooley’s The Topp Twins. Fun, disarming and musically provocative, the Topp Twins are New Zealand’s finest lesbian country-and-western singers and the country’s greatest export since rack of lamb and the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. Runner-up is Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story.

The Cadillac People’s Choice Award – Midnight Madness goes to Sean Byrne’s The Loved Ones. A troubled teen’s prom dreams are shattered by a series of painful events that take place under the mirrored disco ball, involving syringes, nails, power drills and a secret admirer in this wild mash-up of Pretty in Pink and Misery. Runner-up is Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig’s Daybreakers.

-Definitely a nice boost to the film...thoughts?

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