2008 Toronto Film Festival award winners announced
Per First Showing, here they are:
Cadillac People’s Choice Award: Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire
First Runner-Up: Kristopher Belman’s More Than A Game
Second Runner-Up: Cyrus Nowrasteh’s The Stoning of Soraya M
Best Canadian Feature Film: Rodrigue Jean’s Lost Song
Best Canadian Feature Film — Special Citation: Atom Egoyan’s Adoration
Best Canadian First Feature Film: Marie-Helene Cousineau’s Before Tomorrow
Best Canadian First Feature Film — Special Citation: Lyne Charlebois’ Borderline
Diesel Discovery Award: Steve McQueen’s Hunger
FIPRESCI Prize: Derick Martini’s Lymelife / Steve Jacobs’ Disgrace
Slumdog Millionaire has an interesting backstory, not only the subject matter of the movie, but also the politics of finding distribution. Originally, Warner Bros. secured rights to the movie, then apparently got cold feet. Fox Searchlight stepped up. And then this:
Fox Searchlight Pictures President Peter Rice and Warner Bros. Pictures Group President Jeff Robinov announced today that the companies have joined forces on the North American release of Slumdog Millionaire. Fox Searchlight Pictures will handle marketing and distribution of the film. Directed by Danny Boyle and written by Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire stars Dev Patel, Madhur Mittal, Freida Pinto, Anil Kapoor and Irrfan Khan. The film is based on the best selling novel Q&A; by Vikas Swarup. The film is scheduled to be released on November 28, 2008 and will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Here is a scene from Slumdog Millionaire, written by Simon Beaufoy, co-directed by Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan.