After viewing 221 short films and 52 features, Perspective Canada co-ordinator David McIntosh and his team of programmers at the Toronto International Film Festival put together a 51-title program. Submissions from Ontario topped the list with 144 entries and Quebec followed with 63 titles.

Opening Perspective Canada and leading the program’s 20 features is Clement Virgo’s Rude, produced through the Canadian Film Centre Feature Film Project. Also from the ffp, and among the 12 first-time features, are Holly Dale’s Blood & Donuts and Laurie Lynd’s House. Other directorial debuts include Midi Onodera’s Skin Deep, John Paskievich’s If Only I Were an Indian, Stephen Williams’ Soul Survivor and John L’Ecuyer’s Curtis’s Charm. L’Ecuyer, whose short Use Once and Destroy is also programmed, is the only Canadian filmmaker this year with two films in the festival.

Returning to the festival with their latest features are John Pozer, The Michelle Apartments; Mort Ransen, Margaret’s Museum; Anne Wheeler, The War Between Us; Terre Nash, Who’s Counting? Marilyn Waring on Sex, Lies and Global Economics; and Mike Hoolboom, House of Pain.

The four programs of short films include Atom Egoyan’s A Portrait of Arshile, Alanis Obomsawin’s My Name is Kahentiiosta, Guy Maddin’s Odilon Redon, Kim Derko’s Book of Knives, Ann Marie Fleming’s Pleasure Film (Ahmed’s Story) and Helen Lee’s Prey.

Other shorts are: (Ab)Normal, Al Tasmim, Closet Case, Cramps, Curtain, Douglas Coupland: Close Personal Friend, The Feeler, Greentide, Last and First Seconds of a Century, The Lion and the Lamb, Making Change, Movements of the Body (1st Movement the Gesture), The Ocean Doesn`t Want Me Today, Pearl Mad, The People in the House, Picoti Picota, Reconstruction, Secrets, The Soldier Boy, Thomas, The Trunk, When the Mind Hears, Why I’ll Never Trust You (In 200 Words or Less) and Your Name is Cellulite.

Other features are: The Champagne Safari, L’Enfant d’eau, Liste Noire, Live Bait, Once in a Blue Moon, The Suburbanators, Voices of Change and Zigrail.

The festival runs Sept. 7-16.