Cumberbatch’s “Imitation Game” wins Toronto Fest audience award

September 15, 2014 - 14:23 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Imitation Game won the big prize, the People's Choice Award, at this year's Toronto International Film Festival. TIFF's audience award winner is often a precursor to Oscar glory, The Hollywood Reporter said.

Last year, the award went to the eventual best picture winner 12 Years a Slave, and previous TIFF audience award winners have included American Beauty, Slumdog Millionaire and Silver Linings Playbook.

The festival reached its conclusion, as the drama, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as British code-breaker Alan Turing, won the award, voted by fest's audiences. The World War II drama, directed by Morten Tyldum, will be released by the Weinstein Company on Nov. 21.

Toronto Film Festival artistic director Cameron Bailey praised The Imitation Game and its director for spotlighting a little-known story about Turing. "He's a man whose mind was instrumental in ending the Second World War early, who is one of the fathers of the computers we all use today, and the fact that he had to suffer because of his sexual orientation is a drama that should be told," he said.

Isabel Coixet's Learning to Drive, starring Patricia Clarkson and Ben Kingsley, was named first runner-up, while Theodore Melfi's St. Vincent, starring Bill Murray and Melissa McCarthy, was named the second runner-up. It will be released by the Weinstein Company on Oct. 10.

Kevin Smith's Tusk, a horror comedy about a serial killer who turns his victims into walruses, was named runner-up for the People's Choice Award in the fest's Midnight Madness sidebar.

Distributor A24 will release the movie Sept. 19. Jemaine Clement, co-director along with Taika Waititi of What Do We Do in the Shadows, the audience prize winner in that category, in his acceptance speech named and shamed vampire hunters and urged an end to that "barbaric sport."

And director Oren Moverman's Time Out of Mind, starring Richard Gere as a homeless man, claimed the FIPRESCI Jury Prize for Special Presentation Film.