Quebec director Kim Nguyen's Congo child-soldier drama War Witch swept the inaugural Canadian Screen Awards, The Hollywood Reporter said.

The Oscar contender, which came into the Canadian film and TV awards with a field-leading 12 nominations, took top prizes for best film, director, best actress for Rachel Mwanza and best supporting actor for Serge Kayinda.

Meanwhile, it wasn’t a good night in Toronto for Canadian film actors in the major performance categories as both Mwanza, who won best actress trophies at Berlin and Tribeca, and Kayinda are from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

And American actor James Cromwell won for best actor for his star turn in the Canadian drama Still Mine, while Bollywood’s Seema Biswas won for best actress for her performance in Midnight’s Children.

War Witch also won in a slew of craft categories, including cinematography, editing and art direction.

The French-language film earlier snagged an Oscar nomination in the best foreign-language film category.