AlexanderPayne's Sideways addedToronto to its growing quiver of awards season kudos. The Toronto Film CriticsAssociation named Payne's bittersweet comedy Best Picture of 2004 andperformers Paul Giamatti and Virginia Madsen Best Actor and Best SupportingActress.

The othermultiple award winners were Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind, with Michel Gondry named Best Directorand Charlie Kaufman awarded Best Screenplay, and The Triplets of Belleville,which won Best AnimatedFeature and Best Canadian Film (it was a coproduction with France and Belgium).Two UK performers were singled out: Imelda Staunton as Best Actress for herrole in Vera Drakeand Clive Owen as Best Supporting Actor for Closer.

Joshua Marston'sMaria Full Of Gracewas named Best First Feature while Zhang Yimou's martial arts epic Hero was named Best Foreign-Language Film.(Given that French is one of Canada's official languages, French films do notqualify for the prize.) Errol Morris' The Fog Of War was named Best Documentary. To beeligible for a TFCA award, a film must have made its theatrical debut in Torontoduring the calendar year.

The TFCApresented its Clyde Gilmour Award to Kay Armatage, professor, author and formerprogrammer for the Toronto International Film Festival, for her contribution tothe appreciation and promotion of Canadian cinema.

As well thegroup presented a special citation to Toronto filmmaker Chris

Landreth's shortfilm Ryan, callingthe film "An historic achievement in Canadian animation." The film documentsthe work and continuing struggle of Oscar-nominated Canadian animator RyanLarkin, whose addictions have left him leaving on the streets of Montreal.

Following is thecomplete list of the TFCA 2004 winners (followed by distributor):

BEST PICTURE

Sideways (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

BESTPERFORMANCE, MALE

Paul Giamatti, Sideways

BESTPERFORMANCE, FEMALE

Imelda Staunton,Vera Drake

BEST SUPPORTINGPERFORMANCE, MALE

Clive Owen, Closer

BEST SUPPORTINGPERFORMANCE, FEMALE

Virginia Madsen,Sideways

BEST DIRECTOR

Michel Gondry, EternalSunshine Of The Spotless Mind

BEST SCREENPLAY

EternalSunshine Of The Spotless Mind, Charlie Kaufman

BEST CANADIANFILM

The Tripletsof Belleville (OdeonFilms)

BEST FIRSTFEATURE

Maria Full OfGrace, directed byJoshua Marston

BEST ANIMATEDFEATURE

The Tripletsof Belleville (OdeonFilms)

BESTFOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM

Hero (Alliance Atlantis)

BEST DOCUMENTARYFEATURE

The Fog ofWar (Mongrel Media)