The 51st Toronto International Film Festival has handed out its awards at a ceremony held at Toronto’s Lightbox. Marking the end of a successful edition of globally orientated film activities, including the inaugural edition of TIFF: The Market, the festival revealed its competition winners and Audience Awards – the winning titles of which foretell a successful run over the awards season.

The Platform Award, which is given to a film with a strong directorial vision and distinctive storytelling, and offers a direct pathway to the Oscars, went to the Indian flick Angh by Theja Rio. The Platform jury, composed of president Pablo Trapero alongside Amma Asante, Sylvia Chang, Luc Déry and Albert Lee, praised the filmmaker’s “vision, audacity and courage”, and rewarded it “for its refreshing perspective, strength of filmmaking and deeply resonant portrait of a world”. This year, the jury bestowed an Honourable Mention upon a European co-production as well – Brace Your Heart by director Amanda Kernell, “for how its apparent simplicity reflects the complex nature of the world today, its powerful central performance and beautiful visual journey”.

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The beloved People’s Choice Award, presented by Rogers, and determined by public votes on all of the films shown at the festival, was given out in four categories: overall, international, documentary and Midnight Madness.

With a resounding win, the overall People’s Choice Award went to the Cannes-awarded epic period piece La Bola Negra by Spaniards Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi. The International People’s Choice Award went to Simon Stone’s electric Elsinore, starring Andrew Scott, while the People’s Choice Documentary Award was snagged by Barry Avrich for his moving portrait Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been, a Canadian production. The Midnight Madness favourite turned out to be the new offering by Universal Language director Matthew Rankin – a provocative experimental documentary called Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney, another Canadian production.

Another European production, David Turpin's Ancestors (Ireland/UK), starring Éanna Hardwicke, won the FIPRESCI Prize.

The full list of award winners is as follows:

Platform Prize
Angh - Theja Rio (India)
Honorable Mention
Brace Your Heart - Amanda Kernell (Sweden/Norway/Denmark/Iceland/Bulgaria)

Best Canadian Feature Film Award
Sunburn - Serville Poblete (Canada)
Honourable Mention
Man in Motion: The Rock Hansen Story - Adrian Buitenhuis (Canada)

Best Canadian Discovery Award
Smudge the Blades - Cody Lightning (Canada)
Honourable Mention
The Black Box is Orange - Yuula Benivolski (Canada)

People’s Choice Award
La Bola Negra - Javier Calvo, Javier Ambrossi (Spain/France)
First Runner-up
I Play Rocky - Peter Farrelly (USA)
Second Runner-up
Being Heumann - Siân Heder (USA)

International People’s Choice Award
Elsinore - Simon Stone (UK)
First Runner-up
Possible Love - Lee Chang-dong (South Korea)
Second Runner-up
The Assassin(s) - Hur Jin-ho (South Korea)

People’s Choice Documentary Award
Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been - Barry Avrich (Canada)
First Runner-up
Black Sunflowers - James Marcus Haney (Ukraine/USA)
Second Runner-up
The Ultra Runner -Mila Aung-Thwin (Canada)

People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award
Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney - Matthew Rankin (Canada)
First Runner-up
The Spiral - Paolo Strippoli (Italy/France/Belgium)
Second Runner-up
Arrested Memory - Sabu (Taiwan/Japan)

Short Cuts Award for Best International Short Film
Mammalia - Elia Kalogianni (Greece/Netherlands)
Honourable Mention
The Spectacular Death of Prisca - Kaelo Iyizoba (Nigeria)

Short Cuts Award for Best Canadian Short Film
Fight Kid - Michael del Monte (Canada)
Honourable Mention
Almost Pink - Justine Prince (Canada)

Short Cuts Award for Best Animated Short Film
Into the Betaverse - Varun Raman, Tom Hancock (UK)
Honourable Mention
Terminal - Alexandre Siqueira (Portugal/Spain/France)

NETPAC Award
Thirteen in Gaza - Hosam Abu Dan (Palestine)

FIPRESCI Prize
Ancestors - David Turpin (Ireland/UK)