Hotel Rwanda, a film about a courageous Rwandan hotel manager who saved more than 1,000 people from being massacred by Hutu extremists in 1994, took the AGF People’s Choice Award at the 29th Toronto International Film Festival.

Hotel Rwanda, directed by Northern Irish director Terry George (Some Mother’s Son), stars American actor Don Cheadle as real-life hotelier Paul Rusesabagina, who attended the premiere in Toronto on Sept. 11. At yesterday’s awards brunch, held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto, festival director Piers Handling (this year sharing the duties for the first time with co-director Noah Cowan) read a message from filmmaker George, who said he would pass the award on to Rusesabagina, “who told me after the audience reception that we received in Toronto that it was the best night of his life.”

from The Globe & Mail (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040920.wxtiffaw20/BNStory/Entertainment/)
By LIAM LACEY