Cameron Bailey is hoping that film buffs will find something to watch that amazes them, among the hundreds of works screening at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

"I think I want Toronto to experience surprise," said Bailey, the artistic director for the annual event, during an interview with CBC Radio's Metro Morning.

For him, Thermae Romae was a film that did just that for him this year.

"It’s a Japanese movie set partly in Tokyo and partly in ancient Rome," Bailey said.

According to the TIFF website, Thermae Romae is a “time-travel comedy” that tells the story of a man who designs bathing complexes in ancient Rome, but ends up travelling through time to modern-day Japan.

It was initially a comic book, but has been brought to the big screen by Hideki Takeuchi, a film and television director.

"It’s crazy. It's this wild movie, the biggest hit in Japan this year and it’s probably a film a lot of people wouldn’t know about at all. I want them to walk into that screening, be completely amazed and surprised by it and walk out saying: 'I had no idea this kind of movie even existed and I want more.'"

Bailey said these are the type of film experiences that he hopes Torontonians and other festival attendees should be checking out.

"There are always going to be a dozen or so films that everybody wants to run off to, but there is so much more going on," Bailey said.

"Try to find something that you have no idea about, surprise yourself."