Excellent news from Toronto as the festival winds down – the early buzz surrounding Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech has been compounded with the film being awarded the coveted Audience Award, often a sign of Oscar glory.

Colin Firth is already being tapped to go one better than his nomination for the Best Actor Oscar when next year’s Academy Awards come around, and in following up his outstanding performance in Tom Ford’s A Single Man with this role as the reluctant King George IV, Firth is fast becoming recognised as one of our finest actors.

Justin Chadwick’s  The First Grader was the runner up in the category voted for by the public and both films are playing at the London Film Festival in October.

There’s a clip online here to get an idea of what to expect when the film is released.

The L.A. Times reported the list of awards which can be found below.

CADILLAC PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD
“The King’s Speech” (directed by Tom Hooper)
Runner-up: “The First Grader” (directed by Justin Chadwick)

CADILLAC PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD FOR DOCUMENTARY
“Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie” (directed by Sturla Gunnarsson)
Runner-up: “Nostalgia For The Light” (directed by Patricio Guzmán)

CADILLAC PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD FOR MIDNIGHT MADNESS
“Stake Land” (directed by Jim Mickle)
Runner-up: “Fubar II” (directed by Michael Dowse)

CITY OF TORONTO AND ASTRAL MEDIA’S THE MOVIE NETWORK AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN FEATURE FILM
“Incendies” (directed by Denis Villeneuve)

SKYY VODKA AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN FIRST FEATURE FILM
“The High Cost of Living” (directed by Deborah Chow)

PRIZES OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRITICS (FIPRESCI PRIZE) FOR SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS SECTION
“L’Amour Fou” (directed by Pierre Thoretton)

PRIZES OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRITICS” (FIPRESCI PRIZE) FOR DISCOVERY SECTION
“Beautiful Boy” (directed by Shawn Ku)

AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN SHORT FILM
“Les fleurs de l’âge” (Little Flowers)” (directed by Vincent Biron)

Tom Hooper’s follow up to the acclaimed 2009 film The Damned United looks a little further back in time for its setting and it’s getting some excellent reviews from the showings at Telluride and Toronto.

The King’s Speech has an impeccable cast with Colin Firth looking likely to follow his award orbiting turn in Tom Ford’s A Single Man with his role as King George IV, whose relationship with speech therapist Lionel Logue (played by Geoffrey Rush), is the focus of the film.

Helena Bonham Carter, Jennifer Ehle, Michael Gambon, Guy Pearce and Timothy Spall are all on hand to lend support and we got to see a small scene at the recent London Film Festival launch and it made a great impression.

Rope of Silicon have an exclusive clip for us to enjoy,

It’s been a good nine months since we reported on the casting for Tom Hooper’s next project, The King’s Speech and now we’ve got our first look at the main players.

The director of The Damned United has assembled an amazing cast to bring the story of the reluctant King, George VI, and his relationship with his speech therapist, Lionel Logue, played by Geoffrey Rush. Colin Firth is set to play the King, and he talks about the film here,

After A Single Man the time is right for Firth to build on the momentum and this film may see another Oscar nomination,

Here are the pics,

You have The Playlist to thank for the pictures.

You may not have heard the name Tom Hooper but you’ll know his work.

Cutting his teeth on UK TV with Prime Suspect, EastEnders (and Byker Grove…) Hooper made the leap to work on a broader canvas with the epic HBO serials Longford and John Adams and whose recent work, The Damned United, made great use of Michael Sheen’s uncanny ability to embody larger than life characters.

His next project is The King’s Speech, a character piece which tells the story of King George IV’s relationship with a speech therapist as he fights to lose his nervous stammer and live up to his royal duty. Hooper continues to work with talented actors and the key roles here are taken by Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush as the King and therapist respectively.

Tonight we’ve learned from The Hollywood Reporter that the project has attracted a very interesting cast with the likes of Helena Bonham Carter, Timothy Spall, Derek Jacobi, Michael Gambon and Guy Pearce joining the cast. Another intriguing addition to the cast is Jennifer Elhe who, with Firth, enthralled a nation in the early nineties as Lizzie and Mr. Darcy in the BBC’s definitive adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

With a cast as accomplished as this Hooper looks to build on his growing reputation for finding a human side to historically significant events, and The King’s Speech will certainly be one to watch.

The film, currently shooting in England, will be released in 2010.