Toronto:
The King's Speech a period drama starring Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter took the top prize at the Toronto Film Festival, winning the Audience Award at the cine extravaganza.
The film director by Tom Hooper stars Firth as Britain's reluctant King George VI, who struggled to overcome a stammering handicap while rallying his subjects to fight World War II.
The Audience Award at Toronto is considered a good omen for Oscar contention. In past years the same prize went to two films that went on to win best picture at the Oscars Slumdog Millionaire and American Beauty and others that were nominated, Precious and Shine.
"I'm absolutely thrilled. The fact that the award is voted exclusively by audiences makes this award especially special," said Hooper in his acceptance speech.
The festival with it's active market has become the preeminent North American film showcase.
In 2008, directors Danny Boyle and Darren Aronofsky came to the Toronto International Film Festival with two unknown films and emerged with awards-season favorites. And, as happened two years ago, both of them won goodwill and frontrunner status again with their latest films.
Boyle brought 127 Hours, the story of trapped climber Aron Ralston, played by James Franco, who is forced to cut off his own arm to survive.
Aronofsky unveiled Black Swan the dark tale of a ballerina, played by Natalie Portman. But the two films wound up generating some of the strongest public and media response. That elicited comparisons to two years ago, when a strong Toronto catapulted Slumdog to eight Oscars, including Best Picture, and The Wrestler landed two Oscar acting nominations and won a total of six BAFTA, Golden Globe and Independent Spirit awards.
The film director by Tom Hooper stars Firth as Britain's reluctant King George VI, who struggled to overcome a stammering handicap while rallying his subjects to fight World War II.
The Audience Award at Toronto is considered a good omen for Oscar contention. In past years the same prize went to two films that went on to win best picture at the Oscars Slumdog Millionaire and American Beauty and others that were nominated, Precious and Shine.
"I'm absolutely thrilled. The fact that the award is voted exclusively by audiences makes this award especially special," said Hooper in his acceptance speech.
The festival with it's active market has become the preeminent North American film showcase.
In 2008, directors Danny Boyle and Darren Aronofsky came to the Toronto International Film Festival with two unknown films and emerged with awards-season favorites. And, as happened two years ago, both of them won goodwill and frontrunner status again with their latest films.
Boyle brought 127 Hours, the story of trapped climber Aron Ralston, played by James Franco, who is forced to cut off his own arm to survive.
Aronofsky unveiled Black Swan the dark tale of a ballerina, played by Natalie Portman. But the two films wound up generating some of the strongest public and media response. That elicited comparisons to two years ago, when a strong Toronto catapulted Slumdog to eight Oscars, including Best Picture, and The Wrestler landed two Oscar acting nominations and won a total of six BAFTA, Golden Globe and Independent Spirit awards.
