Rob Stefaniuk's Suck is a rock 'n' roll vampire movie featuring cameos from Carole Pope, Henry Rollins, Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper and Moby. Rob Stefaniuk's Suck is a rock 'n' roll vampire movie featuring cameos from Carole Pope, Henry Rollins, Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper and Moby. (Rafy/TIFF)

Chloe, Atom Egoyan's latest drama, Terry Gilliam's The Imaginariam of Dr. Parnassus and Robert Stefaniuk's star-studded rock 'n' roll vampire comedy Suck exemplify the wide assortment of Canadian content unspooling at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.

Short Cuts Canada program

"You can’t go see [short films] in a theatre normally, so they don't get as much attention as they actually deserve. Canada really shines when it comes to short film," said Short Cuts Canada programmer Agata Smoluch Del Sorbo.

"It was actually a really strong year for short documentaries," she said, pointing out John Greyson's experimental Covered and Min-Sook Lee's My Toxic Baby. She also mentioned Tungijuq, an experimental Inuit exploration of the seal hunt that is a "really striking, visually beautiful, very musical piece."

Aside from being an entry format for newer directors, "it's really telling that our established filmmakers come back to the short form to experiment with the medium," she added, citing new works from the likes of Guy Maddin (Night Mayor), Cordell Barker (Runaway), Chris Landreth (The Spine), Chelsea McMullin (Deadman) and Jamie Travis (The Armoire ).

Organizers announced the Canadian lineup, which includes 29 features and 41 shorts, in Toronto on Tuesday afternoon.

This year's offerings have "a lot of films that break the mould. They're not what you consider stereotypically Canadian, whatever the stereotypes people have about Canadian film," Steve Gravestock, TIFF's associate director of Canadian programming, told CBC News.

"Some of these are genre-busting films, so it's hard to classify them," he said, citing Peter Stebbings' superhero film Defendor (starring Woody Harrelson), Stefaniuk's Suck, Corey Adams and Alex Craig's skateboarding world debut comedy Machotaildrop and Blaine Thurier's "domestic film noir," A Gun to the Head.

The boundary-pushing, hard-to-define nature of some of the Canadian selections, along with the mixed subject matter was "great" for programmers, Gravestock said. "It certainly made viewing the films easier. You're never seeing the same thing over and over again."

High profile slots

Atom Egoyan's latest, marital fidelity drama Chloe, is among this year's TIFF galas.Atom Egoyan's latest, marital fidelity drama Chloe, is among this year's TIFF galas. (TIFF)

Egoyan's Chloe, which Gravestock dubbed "one of his best films, easily," stars Julianne Moore as a wife who hires a young woman (Amanda Seyfried) to test the fidelity of her husband, portrayed by Liam Neeson.

It will be featured as a gala along with Gilliam's Doctor Parnassus, Heath Ledger's final film and also showcasing Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell, who stepped in after the young actor's sudden death.

Canadian Dilip Mehta's Cooking with Stella, a New Delhi-set social satire starring Don McKellar, Lisa Ray and Seema Biswas, also won a coveted gala spot, while award-winning Quebec filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée's The Young Victoria, a fresh look at the iconic British queen's youth, snagged this year's closing-night slot.

Other notable Canadian films to screen at TIFF include:

  • J'ai tué ma mère (I Killed My Mother ) – Quebec wunderkind Xavier Dolan's film that wowed Cannes in May.
  • Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel – Brigitte Berman's surprising documentary featuring insider access and rare archival footage.
  • Leslie, My Name is Evil – Reg Harkema's film about a sheltered juror who falls for a former homecoming queen embroiled in a hippie, death-cult murder trial.
  • Glenn Gould: The Inner Life – Peter Raymont and Michele Hozer's documentary casting new light on the iconic Canadian pianist and his private and romantic life.
  • Petropolis: Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands – filmmaker and visual artist Peter Mettler's documentary exploration of the controversial site.
  • Reel Injun – a documentary by filmmaker Neil Diamond exploring Hollywood's inaccurate portrayals of native peoples.
  • Excited – a quirky Bruce Sweeney romantic comedy about a man whose mother gets in the way of his love life.
  • High Life – Gary Yates's crime comedy about two brothers attempting one last score.
  • Year of the Carnivore – a romantic comedy by Sook-Yin Lee in her directorial debut.
  • The Trotsky – Jacob Tierney's comedy about a Montreal high schooler who believes himself the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky.

The festival will also help celebrate several anniversaries: the centenary of Toronto-born, Hollywood pioneer Mary Pickford's film debut (with an Open Vault program screening of her movie Sparrows ) and several events to help honour the city of Toronto's 175th birthday, including screening archival film footage of Toronto and releasing the book anthology Toronto on Film.

The Toronto International Film Festival takes place Sept. 10-19.

The Young Victoria, starring Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend and directed by Quebec's Jean-Marc Vallée, will be the closing-night picture at this year's Toronto International Film Festival. The Young Victoria, starring Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend and directed by Quebec's Jean-Marc Vallée, will be the closing-night picture at this year's Toronto International Film Festival. (TIFF)