"Precious" wins festival's top prize

Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire has won the People's Choice Award as Best Picture at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. Produced by Oprah Winfrey, the film had already won several awards at the Sundance Film Festival prior to screening at TIFF. It's interesting to note that last year's People's Choice Award winner, Slumdog Millionaire, went on to win the Best Picture Oscar. The People's Choice Award for Best Documentary went to New Zealand's The Topp Twins, about the world's only yodelling, lesbian, country-and-western-singing twins. The People's Choice Midnight Madness Award went to Australia's teen horror/comedy The Loved Ones. Cairo Time won Best Canadian Feature Film, while Quebec director Bernard Émond received a special citation for his film La Donation (The Legacy). Other winners included The Wild Hunt (Best Canadian First Feature Film), the ballet film Danse Macabre (Best Canadian Short), The Man Beyond the Bridge (International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) Discovery Prize) and Hadewijch (FIPRESCI Special Presentations Prize).