Indian Horse has emerged as the big audience favourite at this year's Vancouver International Film Festival. Director Stephen Campanelli's debut, adapted from the Richard Wagamese novel, was named the winner of the Super Channel People's Choice Award prior to VIFF's closing gala screening of Wonderstruck on Friday (October 13).  

Of the remaining audience awards, which are determined by ballot, the Poland/UK production Loving Vincent was named Most Popular International Feature, Agnes Varda's Faces Places garnered the prize for Most Popular International Documentary, while Melanie Wood's portrait of Shane Koyzcan, Shut Up and Say Something, received the nod (not unpredictably) for Most Popular Canadian Documentary.

Also announced at the closing gala was the VIFF Impact Award for the year's best issue-oriented doc, which went to Karina Holden's Blue—a devastating look at the impact of over-fishing, pollution, and climate change on the world's oceans. The VIFF Impact Award was determined this year by jury-members Mark Leiren-Young, Yves J. Ma, and Tina Schliessler, who also made special mention of Karen Lynn Weinberg's Keep Talking, about the reclamation of Indigenous languages on the Alaskan coast. 

Finally, veteran director Léa Pool received the Vancouver Women in Film and Television Artistic Merit Award for her latest feature, Worst Case, We Get Married.

The winners of awards in B.C. and Canadian categories were previously announced at VIFF's B.C. Spotlight Gala on October 7.