Toronto After Dark 2012: Award Winners Announced

After several days of mostly second-tier genre film fun, the Toronto After Dark film festival has wrapped for another year.

This was my first year dipping my toes into the fest, and for me what was most nice was having another excuse to run into regular stalwarts that usually show up for TIFF Midnight Madness screenings. With the likes of ScreenAnarchy writers Peter Kaplowsky and Shelagh Rowan-Legg on board on the programming staff, TAD provides the local scene with a wide range of features, shorts, docs, etc.

There's an earnestness to the whole event which is actually quite charming, exemplified by the sheer ridiculousness of having dozens of different "awards" that they give out at the finale. Cockneys vs Zombies took home the big audience award, while a slew of other words took home plaudits for enough categories that the MTV Video Awards staff would be left scratching their heads.

Now that they've moved comfortably into their new digs at the Bloor Hotdocs Cinema (finally vacating the abysmal toilet of a cinema that was "The Underground"), I expect good things from this festival, hopefully for years to come.

For all the volunteers that seem to go from venue to venue in this festival-soaked town, I  again applaud your tenacity and patience in dealing with boisterous crowds. For those listed in the numerous categories below, I congratulate you. And for those that helped bring these films to Toronto, thanks, we'll see you again next year.

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NOVEMBER 2, 2012: Toronto After Dark Film Festival is thrilled to announce the Award Winners of its 7th Annual Edition! As is tradition at Toronto After Dark, the Jury were the fans themselves with over 4,000 votes cast this year by festival-goers to determine the best new horror, sci-fi, action and cult movies from the around the world!

Genre comedies won audiences over at Toronto After Dark 2012 with the crowd-pleasing British gangsters meets zombies action comedy COCKNEYS VS ZOMBIES winning the festival's Top Prize, the Audience Choice Award for Best Feature Film, GOLD. Close behind, DEAD SUSHI the latest splatter comedy from Japanese cult director Noboru Iguchi gobbled up the SILVER, while A FANTASTIC FEAR OF EVERYTHING a wildly eccentric British fantasy comedy starring fan favourite Simon Pegg snuck away with the BRONZE.

In the Specialty Categories, the big winners were the stylish surgical horror thriller AMERICAN MARY from the Soska Twins which won 6 Awards including Best Director, Best Actress and Best Canadian Feature, the subversive cabin in the woods horror movie RESOLUTION which won 4 Awards including Best Screenplay and Most Innovative Film, and the terrifying tower block horror thriller CITADEL which snagged 3 wins including Best Horror Film and Scariest Film.

In the short-format category, the Best Canadian Short GOLD went to splatterific action comedy BIO COP from fan favourite group Astron-6's Steven Kostanski, while the GOLD for International Short went to the stunningly animated sci-fi film HENRI.  And the inaugural winner of a new award category, Best Independent Video Game: GOLD was the ultraviolent retro-throwbrack HOTLINE MIAMI.

Scroll on for the complete list of award-winners from Toronto After Dark 2012:

AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS, BEST FEATURE FILM

  1. GOLD: COCKNEYS VS ZOMBIES
  2. SILVER: DEAD SUSHI
  3. BRONZE: A FANTASTIC FEAR OF EVERYTHING

AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS, BEST CANADIAN SHORT FILM

  1. GOLD: BIO-COP
  2. SILVER: A PRETTY FUNNY STORY
  3. BRONZE: FROST

AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS, BEST INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM

  1. GOLD:  HENRI
  2. SILVER: VICKI
  3. BRONZE: NUMBERS

AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS, BEST INDEPENDENT VIDEO GAME
1. GOLD: HOTLINE MIAMI
2. SILVER: TALES FROM SPACE: MUTANT BLOB ATTACKS 
3. BRONZE: McPIXEL

SPECIALTY CATEGORY WINNERS - AS VOTED BY FANS

GENRE & TECHNICAL CATEGORIES

BEST HORROR FILM
Citadel

BEST SCI-FI FILM: 
Doomsday Book

BEST ACTION FILM
Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning

BEST COMEDY
Cockneys vs Zombies

BEST DIRECTOR
American Mary (Jen & Sylvia Soska)

BEST SCREENPLAY
Resolution (Justin Benson)

BEST CANADIAN FEATURE FILM
American Mary

BEST LEADING ACTOR
A Fantastic Fear Of Everything (Simon Pegg)

BEST LEADING ACTRESS
American Mary (Katherine Isabelle)

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST
Cockneys Vs Zombies

BEST MAKE-UP
[Rec] 3: Genesis

BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS
Dead Sushi

BEST SOUNDTRACK
Sushi Girl

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
American Mary

BEST EDITING
Crave

BEST TRAILER
Dead Sushi

BEST POSTER
[Rec] 3: Genesis

BEST TITLE SEQUENCE
Crave (Closing Credits)

FUN CATEGORIES

BEST FILM TO WATCH WITH A CROWD
Dead Sushi

FILM MOST LIKE TO SEE A SEQUEL TO
Cockneys Vs Zombies

BEST VILLAIN
Lloyd The Conqueror (Derek the Unholy, played by Mike Smith)

BEST HERO
[Rec] 3: Genesis (Clara the Bride, played by Leticia Dolera)

BEST ANTIHERO
American Mary  (Mary Mason, played by Katherine Isabelle)

BEST KILL
Inbred (Shotgun to the head)

BEST FIGHT
Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning (Sports store fight featuring Scott Adkins and Andrei Arlovski)

GORIEST FILM
Inbred

SCARIEST FILM
Citadel

MOST INNOVATIVE FILM
Resolution

MOST DISTURBING FILM
American Mary

MOST THRILLING FILM
Citadel

BEST FILM INTRO
Resolution

BEST AUDIENCE Q&A
Resolution