'Death of a President' drama wins film award

A controversial Channel 4 docudrama in which President George Bush is assassinated has received a prestigious award at the Toronto Film Festival.

Despite garnering largely negative reviews, Death of a President, by the British director Gabriel Range, was awarded the International Critics' Prize on Saturday.

The film made headlines when a scene showing President Bush being shot by a sniper following an anti-war demonstration was criticised by Republicans. In the dramatic sequence, created with the use of computer graphics, the President can be seen being held up by a secret service guard as his life ebbs slowly away.

The Toronto Festival jury praised the film "for the audacity with which it distorts reality, to reveal a larger truth". Range said the film had recently signed a US distribution deal.

Death of a President is set in 2007, amid protests over the Iraq war, and mixes archive footage with staged sequences. It will be shown on Channel 4 in October.