'Philomena' Wins Hamptons Film Festival

Stephen Frear's "Philomena" has won the Hamptons Film Festival.

The film won the coveted Audience Award for narrative film on Oct. 14. The Weinstein Company is releasing the Oscar contender which has already won two awards at the Venice Film Festival. Additionally the movie won the runner-up audience award at the Toronto Film Festival.

"Philomena" stars Judi Dench and Steve Coogan and tells the story of a world-weary political journalist who picks up the story of a woman's search for her son.

The Hamptons Audience Award has previously been won by "Silver Linings Playbook," "The Artist," "The King's Speech," and "The Young Victoria." The past three winners have all been nominated for Best Picture. As a result "Philomena's" chances at a Best Picture nomination could have increased. However with the race still wide open, anything is still possible.

Other winners at the festival included "Desert Runners" which took home the award for Audience Award in the Documentary category.

The 2013 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize went to "Decoding Annie Parker" while award winning film "The Square" won the Honorable Mention award. The film also took the Victor Rabinowitz and Joanne Grant Award for Social Justice.

The Audience Award for Best Short Film went to "One Last Hug (.....and a Few Smooches) Three Days at Grief Camp."

The narrative jury included "Girl's" Alex Karpovsky, Raul Esparza and Elle film critic Karen Durbin. The documentary jury was made up of producer Daniel Crown, photographer and filmmaker Michael Halsband and Zeitgeist Films co-founder Nancy Gerstman.

The Hamptons Film Festival was held on Oct. 10-14.