TORONTO, Sept 20, (Agencies): “The King’s Speech” won the top award at the Toronto International Film Festival Sunday, giving the Tom Hooper-directed film some early momentum heading into Oscar awards season. The film, which stars Colin Firth as Britain’s reluctant King George VI and Geoffrey Rush as his speech therapist, captured the festival’s People’s Choice award. Other films that won that prize — “American Beauty,” “Crash,” and “Slumdog Millionaire” — later walked off with best picture Oscars. In addition to making a splash with Toronto audiences, “King’s Speech” has been roundly praised by critics.

Firth’s King George, the father of Queen Elizabeth II, is initially reluctant to ascend to the crown following the abdication of his brother Edward VIII. Plagued by a nervous stammer, he enlists the help of a speech therapist and is eventually able to lead the country into World War II. “I am so proud that people responded to the film in such a positive way,” director Tom Hooper, who was not in Toronto, said in a statement read at a festival awards luncheon. Runner-up for the prize was the Justin Chadwick-directed film “The First Grader,” which tells the story of an illiterate man in his eighties who tries to enlist in a Kenyan primary school to take advantage of government-sponsored education.

The 35th edition of the festival was notable for the long-awaited opening of the $200 million Bell Lightbox complex, the first permanent home for the festival. It also featured a quicker pace of deal-making than last year, when the independent film industry was in the depths of a slump brought on by a combination of the credit crisis and a glut of films produced over the last few years. “It was a very strong year for sales,” festival co-director Cameron Bailey said. “We were very pleased to see that the film industry seems to be coming back in terms of distributors buying films.” As of last week, more than 20 films had reached distribution deals during the festival, according to the festival press office. Critics’ awards were presented to “Beautiful Boy”, directed by Shawn Ku, about a married couple dealing with news that their son was involved in a mass shooting at a college, and Pierre Thoretton’s “L’Amour Fou.”
The audience award for top documentary went to Sturla Gunnarsson’s “Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie,” about Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki. Meanwhile, the period was “a fascinating moment when you chart the way mass media has transformed institutions like the monarchy... and the way leadership has to operate,” Hooper said at the film’s premiere.

“Twenty years earlier,” he explained, “being king was still a visual thing. As long as you looked good on a horse or you could wave from a carriage or wave from a balcony and look fine, you could fulfill the ceremonial roles.
“Suddenly (this man) was facing being king at a moment when you had to speak publicly on the radio to the 58 countries of the British Empire, which represented one quarter of the world’s population,” he said.
Stuttering can have severe emotional consequences such as anxiety, self-imposed isolation, shame or stress. In the case of Bertie, as the king was affectionately known, he hoped to avoid altogether becoming king. “So many people looked to the king for a performance that would emotionally connect and on top of that you had the Second World War coming,” said Hooper.
On the one hand, people heard Adolf Hitler give “brilliant, fiery, fluent articulate” speeches while the king of England was “struggling to speak at all.”

Biggest
The Toronto film festival is the biggest in North America and has traditionally been a key event for Oscar-conscious studios and distributors because it is attended by a sizable contingent of North American media. Unlike the Cannes and Berlin festivals, Toronto does not award jury prizes.
Last year the audience prize for best motion picture went to Lee Daniels’ “Precious,” based on the 1996 novel by Sapphire about an obese, illiterate girl from Harlem dealing with abuse and incest.
The film went on to win Oscars for best supporting actress and screenwriting at the 82nd Academy Awards.
Following is a list of the festival’s eight prize winners. The main production country behind each movie is in brackets.

Cadillac People’s choice Award
n Overall: “The King’s Speech,” directed by Tom Hooper, tells the story of the man who would rather not be king. Colin Firth stars as the monarch who overcame a debilitating stammer and Geoffrey Rush plays the speech therapist who helps him. (United Kingdom/Australia)
n Overall runner-up was “The First Grader” by Justin Chadwick (United Kingdom)
n People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award: “Stake Land” by Jim Mickle (United States); Runner-up was Michael Dowse’s Fubar II (Canada)
n People’s Choice Documentary Award: “Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie” by Sturla Gunnarsson (Canada); Runner-up was “Nostalgia for the Light” by Patricio Guzmn. (France/Germany/Chile).
The International Federation of Film Critics Awards (Fipresci Prizes)
n “Beautiful Boy” by Shawn Ku in the Discovery Programme, which spotlights feature films by new and emerging directors (United States)
n “L’Amour Fou” by Pierre Thoretton in the Special Presentations category (France)
The City of Toronto Award for Best Canadian Feature Film
n “Incendies” by Denis Villeneuve
The Skyy Vodka Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film
n “The High Cost of Living” by Deborah Chow
Award for Best Canadian Short Film
n “Les Fleurs de l’age” by Vincent Biron.