Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal, left, and American actor Julianne Moore are shown at the opening of Blindness in Cannes, France, in May. (Evan Agostini/Associated Press)

The Atlantic Film Festival opens in Halifax Sept. 11 with a slate of 254 films, including 70 from Atlantic Canada.

Full details of the festival lineup — which will close with the Canadian premiere of Summerhood, narrated by John Cusack — were released Wednesday.

Summerhood, the debut of Halifax filmmaker Jacob Medjuck, is the story of a nine-year-old boy's pivotal summer camp experience.

Event director Lia Rinaldo says the festival is a chance to celebrate new talent moving into the film industry in Atlantic Canada.

"The one thing that we are so excited about this year is the fact that we're presenting five dramatic first features from the region, which is almost unheard of — I don't think we've ever had a year with that many first features," she told CBC News.

"And this really speaks to growth in the industry, the fact that there's this many people that are really launching the next level of their career."

Other debuts by Atlantic filmmakers include Growing Op by Michael Melski of Halifax and a group of diverse short films from Cory Bowles, Jay Dahl and Jason Eisenor.

Growing Op, a comedy about a teen whose family home doubles as a marijuana grow operation, was shot in New Brunswick. It stars Rosanna Arquette and Wallace Langham of CSI.

Melski, who has previously shown short films at the festival, said it's fitting for the movie to premiere in Halifax.

"The (festival) has nurtured and humoured me as a filmmaker for about 10 years," he said.

Halifax writer-director Ann Verrall is also premiering her first feature film, Nonsense Revolution, about a group of teens helped by the ghost of friend who died in a car accident.

"(The festival) is that thing that you aim for. It's the most immediate thing that you have to know there's a good possibility your work is going to be shown," she said.

Her movie was shot in and around Halifax last October.

The opening film, previously announced, is Blindness, the Canadian co-production that opened the Cannes Film Festival this year.

Written by Canadian Don McKellar from the novel by Jose Saramago, it shows what happens when a new disease makes most of the world blind. Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover and Gael Garcia Bernal star.

The 11 galas include:

• Adoration, a teen drama by Canadian director Atom Egoyan.
• Surveillance, a crime drama by U.S. director Jennifer Chambers Lynch.
• The Black Balloon, a family film by Australian Elissa Down.
• Une Conte de Noël, directed by France's Arnaud Desplechin and starring Catherine Deneuve.
• Otto; or, Up With Dead People, Bruce LaBruce's horror comedy.
• One Week, directed by Michael McGowan, in which Joshua Jackson makes a motorcycle trip from Toronto to Tofino, B.C.
• Patti Smith: Dream of Life, a documentary by first-time filmmaker Steven Sebring about the punk poet and music legend.

Four movies, including Une Conte de Noël and One Week, are making their world debut.

The Special Presentations series is bringing films such as Larry Charles and Bill Maher's Religulous, Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Canadian films Down to the Dirt and Real Time and Israel-German co-production Waltz with Bashir.

Tickets go on sale Wednesday for the festival, which runs Sept. 11 to 22.