Hometown boy David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises earned top prize on Saturday as the 32nd Toronto International Film Festival closed on a high note, giving the Canadian industry reason to smile.

Cronenberg’s thriller about first-generation Russian mobsters in London beat out Jason Reitman’s Juno and the Iraq-themed documentary Body of War from Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro to earn the People’s Choice award in Toronto. Promises opened in 15 screens across North America on Friday to a reported whopping per-screen average of US$37,000.

Other Canadian films triumphing as the festival drew to a close included Guy Maddin’s arty My Winnipeg — surprising everyone by taking the best Canadian feature prize.

Accepting his trophy and the $30,000 cash prize amid audible delight from the Royal York hotel audience, Maddin expressed ‘heartfelt gratitude’ to the Toronto festival for getting behind his quirky Winnipeg travelogue.

‘Not that anything is proven with an award, I assert by all the years I came here and lost to others. But [Toronto] feels like a great festival that’s starting to kick into cruise control,’ he said.

Maddin capped off his festival by seeing My Winnipeg picked up by Maximum Film Distribution for a Canadian theatrical release, while IFC Films took the film as part of an output deal with sales agent Maximum Films International.

Elsewhere, Quebec director Stéphane Lafleur earned the best Canadian first feature for Continental, un film sans fusil, a drama about four people whose lives intersect after one man disappears in the woods.

Also discovered in Toronto was Chris Chong Chan Fui`s Pool — going home with the best Canadian short film prize — while the Discovery Award went to Cochochi, from Mexican director Israel Cardenas and Dominican Republic director Laura Amelia Guzman.

And Argentine director Anahi Berneri won the Artistic Innovation award for Encarnacion, a portrait of an aging B-list actress deciding to return to her hometown to face family and villagers critical over her departure many years earlier.

Rounding out this year’s award winners in Toronto was Rodrigo Pla, taking the FIPRESCI critics prize for La Zona, which made its world premiere at the festival.

On the market side, Toronto closed with around $50 million in film deals, in line with last year’s activity, and organizers praising another successful year.

‘I saw all my buyers and sellers busy, closing deals. It`s encouraging,’ said Giulia Filippelli, head of the festival’s sales and industry office, on Saturday.

Festival co-director Noah Cowan reiterated that ordinary cinema-going audiences represented Toronto’s best asset.

‘Toronto is the only festival where there is absolute vindication from the people who should be seeing your movie,’ Cowan said.

‘That approval from actual people goes a long way to ensuring a continuing embrace of a film in the marketplace,’ he added.

Cowan turned aside criticism that Toronto`s unofficial market was slow to build steam this year, and that movies coming into the festival without U.S. deals too often underwhelmed.

‘It`s hard to know what’s noise and what’s not noise,’ he insisted.

In all, 354 films screened at Toronto`s 32nd edition over 10 days. Of that lineup, 285 films were either world or North American premieres.

The attendance at the festival’s industry component was up 15% to around 3,200 delegates.

TIFF closed Saturday night with a gala screening of Paolo Barzman`s Emotional Arithmetic.