TIFF Winners 2013: '12 Years a Slave' Receives People's Choice Award
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Other winners include 'The Square' that documents mass protests in Cairo, Cory Monteith-starring 'All the Wrong Reasons' and Sion Sono's 'Why Don't You Play in Hell?'.

AceShowbiz - The full winners at this year's Toronto International Film Festival have been announced. Historical drama "12 Years a Slave" took home the coveted People's Choice Award. The pic was helmed by Steve McQueen, the first British director who received the Camera d'Or Award at Cannes 2008 for his directing debut in "Hunger".

Telling the true story of Solomon Northup, a free black man kidnapped and sold into slavery, the movie stars Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Brad Pitt and the young talented Quvenzhane Wallis. It was only McQueen's third movie. His win was announced at the festival's brunch on Sunday, September 15.

"At a festival that has shown so many brilliant films, I cannot be more thrilled to receive this award," London-born McQueen said in a statement following his big win. "I am deeply grateful to all the people who have worked on this film, and that their amazing work has been recognized."

The first runner-up place went to Stephen Frears' drama "Philomena" starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan. The second runner-up was Denis Villeneuve's crime thriller "Prisoners" supported by Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal on the cast ensemble and Mark Wahlberg as an executive producer.

People's Choice documentary award went to "The Square" which recorded the protests taking place in Cairo's Tahrir Square since 2011. It a second big win for director Jehane Noujaim as her retelling of revolution behind the headlines also won an audience award at the Sundance Film Festival in January earlier this year.

The Egyptian director felt grateful for "a wonderful award for the film to win." She told BBC, "This is the only kind of award that really means anything to the team back in Cairo and to everybody who's been fighting on the streets. To understand that people internationally care about the struggle and relate to it is crucially important."

"All the Wrong Reasons" starring the late "Glee" star Cory Monteith won the Grolsch Film Works Discovery Award. People's Choice Midnight Madness Award was given to Sion Sono's "Why Don't You Play in Hell?" ("Jigoku de Naze Warui"), and Best Canadian Feature Film went to Alan Zweig's "When Jews Were Funny".

2013 TIFF Winners:

YouTube Award for Best Canadian Short Film:

  • Winner: Walter Woodman and Patrick Cederberg's "Noah (2013)"
  • Honorable mentions: Kevan Funke's "Yellowhead" & Fraser Munden and Neil Rathbone's "The Chaperone 3D"
City of Toronto + Canada Goose Award for Best Canadian Feature Film:
  • Winner: Alan Zweig's "When Jews Were Funny"
  • Special jury citation: Jennifer Podemski, Cara Gee and Shay Eyre for Peter Stebbing's "Empire of Dirt"
Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film:
  • Winner: Shayne Ehman and Seth Scriver's "Asphalt Watches"
  • Honourable mention: "Afflicted"
Prize of the International Critics (FIPRESCI):
  • Winner for Special Presentations: Pawel Pawlikowski's "Ida"
  • Winner for the Discovery Programme: Claudia Sainte-Luce's "The Amazing Catfish"
BlackBerry People's Choice Award: BlackBerry People's Choice Midnight Madness Award:
  • Winner: Sion Sono's "Why Don't You Play in Hell?" ("Jigoku de Naze Warui")
  • First runner up: Mike Flanagan's "Oculus"
  • Second runner up: Alex de la Iglesia's "Witching & Bitching"
BlackBerry People's Choice Documentary Award:
  • Winner: Jehane Noujaim's "The Square"
  • First runner up: Alanis Obomsawin's "Hi-Ho Mistahey!"
  • Second runner-up: Leanne Pooley's "Beyond the Edge"
NETPAC Award for World or International Asian Film Premiere: Anup Singh's "Qissa" Grolsch Film Works Discovery Award: Gia Milani's "All the Wrong Reasons" RBC Emerging Filmmakers Competition:
  • Winner: Christoph Rainer's "Requiem for a Robot"
  • Honourable mention: Dan Popa for "Tales of Santa Fe" and Kevan Funk for "Destroyer"

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