The Imitation Game – a biopic about the life of Alan Turing, the British mathematician, pioneering computer scientist and Second World War codebreaker who led the effort to crack the Enigma code – has won the top prize at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The film, which stars the British actor Benedict Cumberbatch as Turing, took the Grolsch People’s Choice Award for best film at the 39th edition of the festival.
Accepting the award on behalf of the film’s director Morten Tyldum, Noah Segal of the production company Elevation Pictures said simply: “Yummy, delicious”, a reference to an audience member who said the same about Cumberbatch during a question-and-answer session after the film’s screening at the festival.
“It was unnerving, but true,” added Segal.
The award – which is chosen by audience members and has in the past gone to films that have gone on to become Oscar Best Picture winners such as Slumdog Millionaire, The King's Speech and last year's 12 Years a Slave – is sure to ramp up the awards buzz around the film, which also stars Keira Knightley and Matthew Goode.
It tells the story of Turing, a brilliant mathematician who breaks the Germans’ Enigma code, helping to bring the war to an end, but took his own life at the age of 41 after he was convicted for being a homosexual.
Cumberbatch, 38, who plays Sherlock Holmes in the acclaimed BBC TV drama Sherlock and was the villain in Star Trek: Into Darkness, is one of the most sought-after actors in film and television.
He revealed that he jumped at the chance to play Turing.
“There is a huge burden, an onus of responsibility,” he said. “This was an extraordinary man and sadly, bizarrely, not that well-known for a man of his achievements.”
The runner-up for the prize was Learning to Drive, a film about a Manhattan writer, played by Patricia Clarkson, who finds comfort in her lessons with a Sikh driving instructor, played by Ben Kingsley.
St Vincent, starring Bill Murray, was the second runner-up.
The People's Choice Midnight Madness Award, which showcases horror and offbeat films, went to What We Do in the Shadows, a mockumentary about vampires living in a New Zealand suburb.
“I’d like to use this forum to bring attention to a more serious matter: the disgusting sport of vampire hunting,” said the co-director and co-star Jemaine Clement, best known as one half of the comedy musical group Flight of the Conchords.
The first runner-up for the Midnight Madness audience award was Kevin Smith's Tusk, followed by Jalmari Helander's Big Game.
The People's Choice Documentary Award went to Beats of the Antonov, which follows refugees from the Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains in Sudan.
Oren Moverman's Time Out of Mind, which stars Richard Gere as a man trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter, nabbed the International Critics' Prize (FIPRESCI) for the best film in Special Presentations.
The FIPRESCI Prize for best film in the Discovery segment went to the French rapper and author Abd Al Malik's directorial debut May Allah Bless France!, an adaptation of his 2004 autobiography that chronicles his upbringing in Strasbourg.
The Montreal filmmaker Maxime Giroux's romance Felix and Meira nabbed the Canada Goose Award for Best Canadian Feature Film.
Jeffrey St Jules won the City of Toronto Award for Best First Canadian Feature Film for his genre-twisting musical Bang Bang Baby.
The Indian director Shonali Bose's Margarita, with a Straw won the Netpac Award for an Asian film premiering at the festival.
Launched in 1976, the Toronto festival now ranks with Cannes and Sundance as one of the world’s leading movie gatherings.
The festival, which closed on Sunday, often serves as a launching point for films and performances that go on to win Academy Awards, as well as international films seeking distribution deals.
