We recently wrapped up our coverage of the Toronto After Dark Film Festival but we haven’t had a chance to post the festival winners, until now. The big winner was the cult action film Father’s Day from Winnipeg-based film collective Astron-6 which won the festival’s top prize, the Audience Choice Award for Best Feature Film (Gold). The Divide, the dark apocalyptic sci-fi movie from Xavier Gens (Frontiers, Hitman) won the Audience Silver, while zombie movie fans will be delighted to hear that indie undead buddy comedy Deadheads (from the Pierce Brothers) was given the Audience Choice 3rd Place Prize, Bronze. In the specialty categories, fans gave suburban horror film The Woman a number of key awards including Best Director (Lucky McKee), Best Actor (Sean Bridgers) and Best Actress (Pollyanna McIntosh). The other major winner was British mountain-set thriller, A Lonely Place to die which took home the Fans Choice Awards for Best Action Film, Best Cinematography and Most Thrilling Film.
Here is a complete listing of all the awards given out at Toronto After Dark 2011:
AUDIENCE AWARDS, BEST FEATURE FILM
1. GOLD: FATHER’S DAY
2. SILVER: THE DIVIDE
3. BRONZE: DEADHEADS
AUDIENCE AWARDS, BEST CANADIAN SHORT FILM
1. GOLD: THE LEGEND OF BEAVER DAM
2. SILVER: BLIND SPOT
3. BRONZE: MY MAIN SQUEEZE
AUDIENCE AWARDS, BEST INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM
1. GOLD: NURSERY CRIMES
2. SILVER: BRUTAL RELAX
3. BRONZE: DIRTY SILVERWARE
2011 FANS’ CHOICE AWARDS
A representative sample of over 100 Festival All-Access Pass Buyers were polled in the week after the festival to determine the feature film winners in a range of different specialty categories:
BEST HORROR FILM
The Woman
BEST SCI-FI FILM:
The Divide
BEST ACTION FILM
A Lonely Place To Die
BEST COMEDY
DeadHeads
BEST DIRECTOR
The Woman (Lucky McKee)
BEST SCREENPLAY
Some Guy Who Kills People (Ryan Levin)
BEST LEADING ACTOR
The Woman (Sean Bridgers)
BEST LEADING ACTRESS
The Woman (Pollyanna McIntosh)
BEST ENSEMBLE CAST
The Divide
BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS
Love
BEST MAKE-UP
Monster Brawl
BEST MUSICAL SCORE
Love, The Woman (Tie)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
A Lonely Place to Die
BEST EDITING
The Woman
BEST VILLAIN
The Woman (Chris Cleek, performed by Sean Bridgers)
BEST HERO
Father’s Day (Ahab, performed by Adam Brooks)
BEST KILLS
Father’s Day
SCARIEST FILM
The Innkeepers
MOST THRILLING FILM
A Lonely Place To Die
MOST ORIGINAL FILM
Father’s Day
MOST DISTURBING FILM
The Woman
BEST TRAILER
Father’s Day
BEST POSTER
Father’s Day (by The Dude Designs)
How the votes are cast:
1. Audience Awards, Feature Films – Determined by Audience Votes at Feature Film Screenings
2. Audience Awards, Canadian Shorts – Determined by Poll of Festival All-Access Pass Buyers
3. Audience Awards, International Shorts – Determined by Audience Votes at Shorts After Dark Screening
Toronto After Dark also announced a number of new records set at its 6th annual edition including attendance figures (10,000 fans), published film reviews (over 300), attending filmmakers (over 50), World Premieres (three), and that a number of the films are now in distribution talks following their screenings at the fest. “It’s definitely been our biggest and most successful event by far. We look forward to trying to top it next year!” says Festival Director, Adam Lopez. With that regard, Toronto After Dark has just announced their 2012 dates. While the fest is staying in the Halloween Season, given this year’s tremendous success, it will expanding to 9 Nights of Cinematic Mayhem, running Oct 18-26, 2012. Fans can get complete details on Toronto After Dark 2012 and sign up for updates on next year’s fest at the official festival website:
http://torontoafterdark.com