Silver Linings scores Toronto festival's top prize

MONTREAL (AFP) - David O. Russell's dramatic comedy Silver Linings Playbook, about a man's recovery from a personal and professional meltdown, won the Toronto International Film Festival's top prize on Sunday.

The film, starring Bradley Cooper as a former teacher who moves back in with his parents - played by Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver - after an eight-month stint in a mental institution, scored the BlackBerry People's Choice award on the festival's final day.

Artifact by Bartholomew Cubbins, about a band's struggle in the modern music business, took home the top documentary award. Mikael Marcimain's Call Girl won the International Critics' Prize, in its Discovery program, for a debut feature based on a real-life prostitution scandal that rocked Sweden in 1970s.

French film-maker Francois Ozon's In the House (Dans la maison) nabbed the International Critics' Prize in its Special Presentations program.