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Slumdog Millionaire ended up the top dog.

The 2008 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival wrapped today, with the Bombay-based movie about a teen one question away from the grand prize on the Indian Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, directed by Danny Boyle and starring Freida Pinto and Dev Patel, scoring the fest's biggest kudo, the People's Choice Award. It capped a 10-day cinema orgy that featured Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston deftly avoiding each other, Roger Ebert bonked by a fellow film critic and, perhaps most shockingly, Mickey Rourke continuing to solidify his place on the Oscar map.

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So used to using his thumbs, Roger Ebert thought nothing of tapping a guy on the shoulder.

But the fellow film critic whose attention he tried to get—who, according to Ebert, was blocking his view of the subtitles during the premiere screening of Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire at the Toronto Film Festival—didn't take kindly to being touched by any of Ebert's famous digits.

"In my medical condition I cannot speak, I tapped him lightly on the shoulder, and gestured him to move over a little," Ebert, who has been battling thyroid and salivary gland cancer for the last couple years, wrote today in his Chicago Sun-Times column.

"He said, 'Don't touch me!' and remained in position. I tapped him lightly again. "I said—don't touch me!" He leaned further into the aisle, as if making a point of it. I tapped him a third time, and he jumped up and whacked me on the knee with whatever it was."

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Laura Bickford Productions

Steven Soderbergh's Che will be coming soon to a theater near you. Be sure to pack accordingly.

In one of the higher profile deals of the week, IFC Films leaves the Toronto International Film Festival with North American distribution rights to the the 4 1/2-hour, two-part Benicio Del Toro-starring biopic.

Though trimmed less than Che Guevera's beard from its even longer version at Cannes, the epic will get one-week runs in New York and Los Angeles to qualify for Oscar consideration before going wider in January. A DVD version will be available through IFC's exclusive deal with Blockbuster.

Soderbergh is "one of the most visionary American directors at work today," gushed IFC Films president Jonathan Sehring. "Che is nothing less than the film event of the year...Steven Soderbergh and Benicio Del Toro, who gives an incredible soulful performance, have humanized [Guevera] and given audiences around the world something that will be discussed for years to come."

Possibly because it will take years to watch the entire film.

At the gala party for Che at Toronto's Greenhouse space, a low-key Del Toro said this was his "toughest role."

Also making the scene in Toronto:

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Lionsgate

Bill Maher isn't monkeying around when it comes to politically incorrect humor, or his favorite subject—the Almighty.

His new documentary, Religulous, which had its world premiere Saturday night at the Toronto Film Festival, is predictably making waves for its satirical musings on the world's three main religions.

And then there's the poster.

The one-sheet, which will adorn theaters outside the U.S., shows a trio of chimps dressed as a rabbi, the pope and an Islamic cleric.

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Protozoa Pictures/Saturn Films

Dealmakers at the 2008 Toronto Film Fest suffered a serious case of buyers' remorse when only one film snapped up at the event, The Visitor, showed something resembling a healthy profit.

So you had to figure there would be hangover this year. There was. And then came Mickey Rourke.

After an all-night bidding war Sunday, Fox Searchlight body-slammed the opposition and won U.S. distribution rights for The Wrestler for a reported $4 million-$5 million. Starring unlikely Oscar bait Rourke as past-his-prime grappler, and Evan Rachel Wood, the Darren Aronofsky-helmed film just scored the Golden Lion prrize at the Venice Film Festival last weekend.

Sony Pictures, Weinstein Co. and Lionsgate were also reportedly in the bidding, before Searchlight, with its rep as a leading marketer and distributor for speciality film products, won the day.

Last year's way-too-serious dramas may have dampened spirits and pocketbooks at Toronto, but this year's crowd-pleasing comedies, dramas and love stories have audiences and buyers powered up.

Some other done deals in recent days:

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• Jennifer Aniston (Management) couldn't manage her feelings towards Brad Pitt (Burn After Reading). She canceled reservations in one hotel she considered too close to him and relocated to premises further away. Aniston's privacy was also protected by her main PR man Stephen Huvane, who spread his jacket in front of her to block any underwear shots during her limo exit.

• The premiere of Burn After Reading turned the normally cool Toronto crowd into a blazing mob of young girls hot for Pitt, who signed autographs on any material offered. The Bradulation overwhelmed costar Tilda Swinton, who felt compelled to apologize to the crowd: "I'm sorry I'm not Brad!"

• MIA from the Burn After Reading screamathon was Pitt BFF George Clooney, in Milan filming a Japanese commerical for Honda.

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While most of the blogosphere was speculating over a Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston reunion in Toronto this weekend (they had dinner or totally avoided each other, depending on who you believe) another set of former flames quietly reconnected.

Lost's Evangeline Lilly and Dominic Monaghan—who split after his character was killed off the show and the actor left Hawaii last year—were spotted together at the film fest Saturday, lending credence to the rumors that the two have patched things up.

After dinner for two at the romantic Italian restaurant Sotto Sotto, Evangeline and Dominic were together at the Blindness premiere but ultimately chose to walk the red carpet alone, according to an E! News eyewitness. They also left separately.

Why so shy, kids? It's not like either one of you has six rugrats, a baby mama and half the world's press monitoring your every move in case something inappropriate takes place.