Toronto Film Festival Awards - 2007 Winners
September 15th, 2007 by Andre Soares
Rodrigo Plá’s socio-psychological drama La Zona, was voted best film by the International Film Critics (FIPRESCI) jury at the 32nd Toronto International Film Festival, which came to a close today.
Written by Plá and Laura Santullo, and starring Daniel Giménez Cacho, Maribel Verdú, and Daniel Tovar, La Zona focuses on the consequences of a violent crime at an exclusive Mexico City neighborhood. Variety’s Jay Weissberg calls it "an impressive feature debut that sweeps the viewer into the horrors of vigilante justice, doing more than simply pitting the haves against the have-nots."
The People’s Choice Award went to David Cronenberg’s Anglo-Canadian thriller Eastern Promises, the tale of a London-based Russian gangster (Viggo Mortensen, right) whose (a)moral compass goes off-kilter after he encounters a midwife (Naomi Watts) who has accidentally uncovered incriminating evidence against his clan.
Since its inception in 1978, the People’s Choice Award has been a reliable barometer of a film’s award-worthiness elsewhere. In fact, the vast majority of the festival’s audience winners — e.g., Tsotsi, Hotel Rwanda, Amelie, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, American Beauty, Life Is Beautiful, Shine, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Chariots of Fire — have gone on to receive or be nominated for countless accolades around the globe.
Eastern Promises opens in the U.S. on Sept. 21. (Last year’s Toronto winner, Alejandro Gomez Monteverde’s romantic fable Bella, opens in the U.S. in late October.)
The CityTV Award for best Canadian feature went to Stéphane Lafleur’s black comedy Continental, un film sans fusil, about four people whose lives intersect after one man disappears in the woods. The other award for a Canadian feature, the Toronto-City Award, went to Guy Maddin’s My Winnipeg (above), described as the director’s dreamlike, "very personal portrait of his hometown."
Israel Cárdenas and Laura Amelia Guzmán’s Cochochi was the Diesel Award winner, given to new talent. Set in Mexico’s Sierra Tarahumara, Cochochi is described as the story of two indigenous brothers (Luis Antonio Lerma Torres and Evaristo Lerma Torres) who are sent to deliver a package to an isolated community. After losing one another, "they each then embark on a separate adventure, leading them to discover a new world."
Anahí Berneri’s Argentinian drama Encarnación was given the Artistic Innovation Award. The film tells the story of an aging actress (Silvia Pérez) who returns to her small town after years of work as a performer in softcore films.
2007 Toronto Film Festival Award Winners
Toronto Film Festival 2007 - Contemporary World Cinema
Toronto Film Festival 2007 - Gala Screenings, Masters, Special Presentations
Toronto Film Festival 2007 Real to Reel Documentary Line-Up
Toronto Film Festival 2007 - Visions and Vanguard Sidebars
OBSCENE at the Toronto Film Festival 2007
DARFUR NOW at the Toronto Film Festival 2007
MICHAEL CLAYTON at the Toronto Film Festival 2007
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