Award season in Toronto kicked off last night with the Toronto Film Critics Association awards gala. The critics awarded Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson’s psychedelic ode to lost film reels, The Forbidden Room their top honour, the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award. Maddin and Johnson beat out Philippe Falardeau’s My Internship In Canada and Andrew Cividino’s Sleeping Giant for the $100, 000 prize. Cividino and Falardeau both received a $5,000 prize for being nominated.

Other honourees included Deepa Mehta who received the Technicolor Clyde Gilmour Award. A unique award which features a pay-it forward component where a rising talent chosen by the recipient is given $50,000 worth of services from Technicolor. Mehta awarded documentarian Nisha Pahuja (The World Before Her) with the production incentive.

The Stella Artois Jay Scott Prize for an Emerging Artist was awarded to Anne Émond for her second feature film, Les Êtres Chers, while Vladimir Paskaljevic received the Manulife Student Film Award for his short film Absence Is Present. Both awards include a cash prize of $5,000.

The TFCA’s previously announced Bests of 2015:

Best Picture – Carol

Best First Feature – Ex Machina

Best Director – Todd Haynes (Carol)

Best Actress – Nina Hoss (Phoneix)

Best Actor – Tom Hardy (Legend)

Best Supporting Actress – Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina)

Best Supporting Actor – Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies)

Best Screenplay – Adam McKay & Charles Randolph (The Big Short)

Allan King Documentary Award – The Look of Silence

Best Animated Feature – Shaun the Sheep Movie

Best Foreign-Language Film – Phoenix

Established in 1997, the Toronto Film Critics Association is comprised of Toronto based film journalists and broadcasters. The awards and cash incentives for Canadian film-makers offered by the critics association are some of the biggest cash prizes in the Canadian film industry.