It was an emotional Piers Handling who launched into a thank-fest to open the 1996 Toronto International Film Festival awards brunch at the Four Seasons Hotel on the last day of the 21st festival. Handling, tiff’s director of programming, made special mention of the filmmakers themselves saying, ‘We are blessed in terms of the talent who came this year.’

Blessed indeed. This year’s fest, a smoothly purring cinema machine oiled by the considerable skill of organizers and the 6,882 espressos and cappuccinos served up by Sheraton Centre headquarters, reported box office receipts of $1.12 million, a 12% increase over last year. And while no blockbusters emerged, a collection of notable projects and rising stars did.

The closing awards brunch saw David Wellington’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night win the Toronto-City Award for best Canadian feature film, which includes $25,000 cash. Citytv program director Ellen Baine, speaking on behalf of the jury, gave a special jury citation to Lynne Stopkewich’s first feature Kissed.

The nfb’s John Spotton Award for best Canadian short, a cash prize of $2,500, went to Mike Hoolboom’s Letters From Home. Jury citations went to Ben Famiglietti and Jack Cocker for Sin Cycle and to Philippe Baylaucq’s Lodela, an nfb film.

Scott Hinks’ Australia/u.k. film Shine was the big public winner, pulling in first place for the Metro Media Award (voted on by the city’s press corps) and the Air Canada People’s Choice Award (voted on by the public).

Second and third place for the Metro Media Award went to Lars von Trier’s Breaking The Waves (Denmark/France) and Neil Jordan’s Michael Collins (Ireland). In second place for People’s Choice was Hettie Macdonald’s Beautiful Thing (u.k.), while Deepa Mehta’s Fire and Carroll Ballard’s Fly Away Home (u.s.) tied for third.

This year’s jury for the Fipresci Award, chosen by international film critics, awarded the prize to a film in the fest’s new Discovery program. The winner was Lawrence Johnston’s Life (Australia) and a special mention was given to The Daytrippers from Greg Mottola (u.s.).

Symposium 96 again assembled industry luminaries for a two-day interactive chat on the state of the industry, from every angle. Symposium workshops were among the hottest tickets, some standing room only, some no room at all.

On day one, at a seminar entitled Filling the Empty Seats: The State of Canadian Film, Exotica producer and Palpable Productions producer/director Camelia Frieberg bemoaned the dearth of risk-takers to support the next generation of Canadian filmmakers, while l.a. writer, producer and producer’s rep Jeff Dowd proclaimed that Canadian independents are in the land of opportunity compared to their u.s. counterparts: ‘The opportunities here are phenomenal.’

In between, discussion ranged from the need to reach a ‘critical mass’ by producing an increased quantity of Canadian feature product, to what Bryan Gliserman, senior vp Cineplex Odeon Films Canada, called the ‘ridiculous’ idea of having to generate a full film budget from within Canada’s borders.

The Playback-sponsored Broadcast Blues seminar featured Alliance’s Christine Shipton summing up one of the main issues of producing quality Canadian drama by saying: ‘The financial reality is that what broadcasters want can’t be delivered for what they’re willing to pay.’

At day two’s seminar entitled An Endowment for the Future: Fostering Homegrown Talent, Bill House, director of operations at Telefilm Canada’s Toronto office, said Telefilm is hoping to restructure the distribution fund so that distributors play a more active role in the development of projects.

At a workshop called The Documentary Sweepstakes, the message from foreign buyers was the importance of tailoring projects to fit an existing programming strand. Bill Harris, vp production services at A&E Networks, was only half joking when he said that as a&e grows it’s looking for ‘intergalactic rights in perpetuity.’

As for the cbc, Marc Starowicz, head of docs, said he sees the cbc as tantamount to ‘an export development arm for documentaries.’ Starowicz also said he foresees a ‘coming together’ between cbc and the nfb.

And of course, it wouldn’t be a film event without the partiers and peccadill’es of the fest’s endless social schedule, which was rife with strange food and grinning celebrities (including the ubiquitous, seemingly cloned Lou Gossett Jr.).

The swankily executed lounge party at the Buddies in Bad Times Theatre was every amphibian’s dream, complete with moving meat, in the form of Spam chunks affixed to servers’ hats.

Organizers of the closing party were apparently looking to provide comfort to fest-weary attendees and opted for Kraft Dinner on the menu.

Judging by the innumerable hordes at the event, however, it seemed that everyone gave their tickets to non-industry type friends while they remained home in the fetal position, rocking and watching thsc or at the Sheraton Hotel drinking Scotch Caesars (reportedly a requested libation during the fest).

And lest one assume that all this fabulousness has eroded the stand-up quality of Toronto the Good, the Sheraton also reported the return to the lost and found of an envelope containing passes and more than 100 tickets to a screening and, more improbably, two full boxes of Monte Cristo cigars.

With files from Teressa Iezzi.