The disappointment faced at Oscars by "War Witch" (French - Rebelle) when it lost its Best Foreign Language film award to "Amour" was quickly forgotten when the movie grabbed ten awards at the first ever Canadian Screen Awards Sunday night.

The Canadian drama film written and directed by Kim Nguyen won the best picture award and 9 other trophies at the gala.

Teen actor Rachel Mwanza, who played the film's key role of a 12 year old girl named Komona, won the best lead actress prize. Her co-star Serge Kanyinda, who played the role of a boy with albinism in the film, took home the best supporting actor award.

It also won awards for art direction, cinematography, editing, overall sound and sound editing, grabbing an overall landslide trophies for 10 out of 12 categories for which the film was nominated.

"I'd like to dedicate this to the women in the Congo, their strength, their courage and their resilience," Nguyen said as he received the best director award in the stage.

Mwanza (15), who rose from living as a street child in Kinshasa as an abandoned child to being a famous star, breathlessly thanked a list of people in French, including all the Congolese.

"I share this with all of the children of the street," she said.

Other Awards

Some of the other awards in the film category include:

• Lead Actor: James Cromwell, "Still Mine"
• Visual Effects: Resident Evil: "Retribution"
• Feature Length Documentary: "Stories We Tell"
• Short Documentary: "The Boxing Girls of Kabul"
• Live Action Short Drama: "Throat Song"
• Animated Short: "Paula"

'Flashpoint' Wins Best Drama, 'Less Than Kind' Wins best Comedy

The awards which also recognized the television series saw "Flashpoint" the police thriller series taking home best drama award. Its actor Enrico Colantoni took home the Canadian Screen Awards for best lead actor in a drama for his role he played as the head of a police unit.

"Less Than Kind" was named best comedy series while its Wendel Meldrum picked up the award for the best lead actress in a comedy.

She thanked HBO Canada and The Movie Network which, she said, "had the courage to stand by and give the creatives the space to make something that was needed and appropriate for the show to go on."

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