HOTEL RWANDA Wins Audience Award: Toronto Film Festival 2004

Sophie Okonedo, Don Cheadle, Hotel Rwanda

Based on the true story of a hotel manager who saved hundreds of lives during Rwanda's 1994 genocide, Terry George's Hotel Rwanda has won the People's Choice award at the 2004 Toronto Film Festival.

In the film, hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina (played by Don Cheadle) saves the lives of those hiding in his establishment by bribing military officers with cash, liquor, and other goods. During the spring and early summer of 1994, while the world looked away approximately 800,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were massacred in Rwanda.

Brad McGann's In My Father's Den, a New Zealand film about a war journalist (Matthew Macfadyen) who returns to his isolated hometown, won the International Film Critics' FIPRESCI prize. Miranda Otto and Emily Barclay are also featured in the drama.

Pete Travis' Omagh, about the relatives of victims of the bloodiest terrorist attack in Northern Ireland's 30-year conflict, won the festival's Discovery Award, while Michael Dowse's comedy It's All Gone Pete Tong and Daniel Roby's horror film White Skin won the Canadian film prizes.

With its Toronto win (and its now well-publicized Schindler's List similarities), Hotel Rwanda has received a good push on the road to the Oscars. About half of Toronto's People's Choice winners have gone on to receive important Academy Award nominations (and wins), among them The Official Story, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Shine, Life Is Beautiful, American Beauty, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.