The 10th annual Tribeca Film Festival (TFF), announced the winner of the Heineken Audience Award – Give Up Tomorrow – tonight at Eye Beam in New York City. The film’s director, Michael Collins, will receive a cash prize of $25,000.

Throughout the Festival, which kicked off on April 20, audiences have been able to vote for the Heineken Audience Award by completing nomination ballots upon exiting screenings of TFF films. Films in the World Narrative Competition, World Documentary Competition, Viewpoints, Spotlight and Cinemania sections were eligible for the Heineken Audience Award, the audience choice for best feature film. Final results were tabulated and announced during this evening’s Festival wrap party.

Give Up Tomorrow received a Special Jury Mention in the World Documentary Competition at this year’s TFF and played to rapturous response and standing ovations.

The film tells the story of culinary student Paco Larrañaga, who, at 19 years old in 1997, was arrested for the kidnap, rape, and murder of two sisters on the provincial island of Cebu in the Philippines.. Despite demonstrable evidence of his innocence, including 40 eyewitnesses and photographs placing him hundreds of miles from the scene, Paco’s legal ordeal was only just beginning. Dubbed the Philippines’ “trial of the century,” Paco’s ordeal became a galvanizing focal point in a far-reaching exposé of gross miscarriage of justice at the highest levels.

Following the case and its aftermath for more than a decade, the film traces Paco’s story from the ethnic and class tensions at its roots, through a distracting thread of tabloid sensationalism, and ultimately to appeals and interventions from foreign governments and NGOs as the injustice of Paco’s situation becomes ever more stark and undeniable.

Give Up Tomorrow was screened on Sunday, May 1 at 12 noon and 9 p.m. at Clearview Cinemas Chelsea, as will the rest of the films that won awards at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival. All other 2011 TFF award winners were announced previously at an awards show on Thursday, April 28, 2011. A full list of winners can be found at www.tribecafilm.com.

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