'Philomena', 'Blue Ruin', 'CLAW' Win Top Honors at Virginia Film Festival

The 26th Virginia Film Festival wrapped up a couple of weeks ago, bringing to a close another tremendous 4-day event filled with a diverse slate of dramas, comedies, foreign films, documentaries, and indies from all corners of the globe. Many of these movies already had Oscar hopes, while others were seeking to gain enough buzz to get on the public radar.

VFF has tallied up the votes for their Audience and Programmer's Awards, and it reconfirms Philomena as a legitimate Oscar favorite. The Stephen Frears-directed drama, led by Steve Coogan and Judi Dench, won the Narrative Feature Audience Award, adding to its People's Choice Award victory at Toronto. After a rousing late night showing packed with rowdy, costumed locals there to show support, it's not surprise that the female arm-wrestling documentary CLAW won the Audience Award for Documentary Feature. Another hometown property made good as Jeremy Saulnier's revenge tale Blue Ruin won the Programmer's Award for Narrative Feature, adding to the acclaim the film has already earned at Cannes and Toronto.

The full list of winners is below:

Audience Award
Narrative Feature: Philomena
Documentary Feature: CLAW
Narrative Short: Awakened Eyes
Documentary Short: The Creative Proposition

Programmer's Award
Narrative Feature: Blue Ruin
Documentary Feature: A Will for the Woods
Narrative Short: Miracle Boy
Documentary Short: Ring People