Here's part of the press release from The Wrap (via Awards Daily):
The Cadillac People’s Choice Award is voted on by Festival audiences. This year’s award goes to Lee Daniels’s Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire. From director Lee Daniels comes a vibrant, honest and resoundingly hopeful film about the human capacity to grow and overcome. Set in 1987 Harlem, it is the story of Claireece “Precious” Jones, an illiterate African-American teenager who is pregnant for the second time by her absent father and abused by a poisonously angry mother. Despite her experiences, Precious has a dream that other possibilities exist for her and jumps at the chance to enroll in an alternative school. There she encounters Ms. Rain, a teacher who will start her on a journey from pain and powerlessness to self-respect and determination. The film stars Mo’Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey, Sherri Shepherd, Lenny Kravitz and introduces Gabourey Sidibe. The award offers a $15,000 cash prize and custom award, sponsored by Cadillac.indieWIRE'S Anne Thompson shares some of her impression of Precious from Toronto and how it might shake up the Oscar race:
Lionsgate made a starry splash for its Sundance pick-up Precious by importing not only star Mariah Carey and singer Mary J. Blige, but exec producers Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey who worked the fest like pros. Precious has Oscar momentum. And it has done what no other film has ever done before: won the best audience prize at both Sundance and Toronto.She also has more on what was good, bad, and disappointing about Toronto. Some of it is surprising. It might help to a lot to keep the hype down.
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