UNTOUCHABLE GIRLS WINS AUDIENCE AWARD

New Zealand's Topp Twins have won a major award at the Toronto International Film Festival. The twins' documentary, The Topp Twins Untouchable Girls, won the audience award for top documentary. The documentary tells the story of the lesbian comedians, activists and country and western singing duo, Jools and Lynda Topp. It was directed by Leanne Pooley. The top award at the Toronto festival went to Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire , giving the Oprah Winfrey-produced film some early momentum heading into Oscar awards season.

The film, a gritty tale of the abuse and redemption of a teenage girl in Harlem, captured the festival's people's choice award, which is voted on by filmgoers. Last year it went to best picture Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire.
Critics have roundly praised Precious since its debut at the Sundance Film Festival in January, and audiences in Toronto warmly received the film, which is directed by Lee Daniels and will hit theatres in November.

"I made this film for every person out there who ever looked in the mirror and felt unsure about the person looking back," Daniels, who is travelling in Spain, said in a statement read out at an awards reception in Toronto.

As well as Slumdog Millionaire, past winners of the award that have gone on to win the best picture Oscar include American Beauty and Chariots of Fire.The festival, which wraps up later on Saturday with a red-carpet screening of The Young Victoria, a look at the British queen's early years, was notable this year for a lack of distribution deals signed as the independent film industry remains mired in a near two-year funk.

More than a third of the more than 330 films screened entered the festival without distribution deals, and barely a handful were announced during the event's 10-day run.Festival co-director Piers Handling said he expected more deals involving Toronto-screened films to be announced soon, but said the days of festival bidding wars were likely over.

"It's a combination of just an increasingly conservative marketplace in North America, the recession, as well as a glut of product," he told Reuters after the awards presentation. "I think there will be fewer films being made." Other winners included critics' awards for The Man Beyond the Bridge, an Indian production featuring the little-used language of Konkani, and Hadewijch, a French film that looks at the possibilities and consequences of a devoutly religious life.

source stuff.co.nz
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