12 YEARS A SLAVE Wins People’s Choice Award At Toronto International Film Festival

The 38th Toronto International Film Festival today announced its award recipients at a reception at the Intercontinental Hotel in Toronto.

This year marked the 36th year that Toronto audiences were able to cast a ballot for their favorite Festival film, with the BlackBerry® People’s Choice Award. This year’s award goes to Steve McQueen for 12 YEARS A SLAVE.

The film tells the incredible true story of Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841 and finally freed in 1853. The story is a triumphant tale of one man’s courage and perseverance to reunite with his family that serves as an important historical and cultural marker in American history.

The award offers a $15,000 cash prize and custom award, sponsored by BlackBerry.

The first runner up is Stephen Frears’ PHILOMENA. The second runner up is Denis Villeneuve’s PRISONERS.

Click HERE for the rest of the awards.

Will director Steve McQueen’s drama be the film to beat come Oscar time? It’s still a long ways off until Oscar Sunday – March 2, 2014, but over the years TIFF has been a good indicator of who will be left standing when the Academy Award for Best Picture is announced.

Oscar pundit Pete Hammond over at Deadline wrote,

“It’s a good omen for Oscar as such recent Best Picture winners as The King’s Speech, Slumdog Millionaire, American Beauty, and Chariots Of Fire were also winners that went on to take the Oscar for Best Pic.”

Two items to consider: How will 12 YEARS A SLAVE be received by AMPAS voters (nominations announced January 16, voting ending February 25, 2014) and filmgoers when it’s released in theaters October 18th.

As far as the actors’ race, The Hollywood Reporter’s chief awards analyst, Scott Feinberg, pointed out over on Twitter.

NOTEWORTHY: TIFF Audience Award 1st runner-up was PHILOMENA and 2nd runner-up was PRISONERS. Watch out for Judi and Jakey!

— Scott Feinberg (@ScottFeinberg) September 15, 2013

My sentimental side has Dame Judi Dench winning her first Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role as Philomena Lee, an Irishwoman searching for her long-lost son she was forced to give up for adoption 50 years earlier.

Dench’s solo Academy Award was for Best Supporting Actress in SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE (1999), while she was previously nominated for Best Actress with her performances in MRS. BROWN (1998), IRIS (2002), MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS (2006), NOTES ON A SCNADAL (2007) and a supporting nod for CHOCOLAT (2001).

PHILOMENA writers Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope won Best Screenplay at the 70th Venice Film Festival in early September.

Time will tell if the film and Dench will carry this early momentum at the very telling Screen Actors Guild Awards on Saturday, January  18, 2014.

The Toronto International Film Festival is the annual hub for fervent film sales activity on a U.S. and International level, and 2013 was no exception. To date, 32 film sales have been announced to territories globally. That includes 21 major sales to U.S. distributors and a significant increase in Canadian sales with a total of eight. More agreements are expected to be announced in the coming days.

Key acquisitions include: Bad Words, Burt’s Buzz, Can a Song Save Your Life?, Fading Gigolo, Joe, McCanick, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him and Her, The F Word, The Green Inferno, The Railway Man, Tom at the Farm and Under the Skin.

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