Director Michael Dowse left TIFF on a high note, taking $30,000 and the prize for best Canadian feature film for his club-hopping documentary It’s All Gone Pete Tong and the pic’s ‘funny, engaging and flawless portrayal of a flawed character as well as for its ability to capture the infectious rhythms of the club scene.’

The festival jury also awarded a special citation to Velcro Ripper’s ScaredSacred – another doc and a ‘very personal journey [into] paranoia and uncertainty.’

Daniel Roby and his genre-bender La Peau blanche won the prize for best first feature film by a Canuck, taking a cheque for $15,000 and accolades for its ‘mix of race, politics, romance and horror.’

Other TIFF awards, handed out at a brunch ceremony on Sept. 19, include the Discovery Award, awarded by media reps, which went to the Ireland/U.K. picture Omagh, and the People’s Choice Award, which landed in the lap of director Terry George for his Hotel Rwanda, an examination of that country’s 1994 genocide.

In My Father’s Den by New Zealand director Brad McGann won the FIPRESCI prize, which goes to films by new directors that make their world debuts at TIFF, while the best Canadian short prize and $10,000 went to Man Feel Pain by Dylan Akio Smith.