the Toronto International Film Festival is not only one of the world’s most acclaimed venues for showcasing independent films, it also provides a priceless opportunity for filmmakers – many of whom are making their feature film debuts – to talk up new projects in the hope of finding coproducers, distributors and/or financing.

The following outlines some of the works in development by a handful of filmmakers taking part in this year’s Perspective Canada program.

Pool dives into first English feature

quebec filmmaker Lea Pool (Emporte-moi) is working on her first English-language feature, based on the novel Taxi Pour la Liberte (Taxi for Freedom) by broadcaster and journalist Gilles Gougeon. Pool is currently penning the script and is slated to direct. Lorraine Richard (producer of Emporte-moi) is attached to produce.

Budgeted at roughly $5 million, the film follows three refugees who struggle with isolation and displacement as they flee their homeland.

Podeswa pitches two

at tiff, Fine Line Features picked up u.s. rights to Jeremy Podeswa’s The Five Senses.

Podeswa is now in the early stages of development on Minus Time, a feature film adaptation of the Catherine Bush novel about the relationship between a young girl and her astronaut mother. Camelia Frieberg will produce and Podeswa will direct.

He is also working on a script called Grace, which he plans to direct, about three women from different countries who meet under strange circumstances. No producer is attached at this stage.

*rollercoaster’s Smith ready to roll on two flicks

Scott Smith (rollercoaster) is signed on to direct two features, The Covered, a suspense thriller in development with Toronto-based novelists Michael Helm and Michael Redhill, and The Great Laliberts, currently being written by Graheme Manson.

Smith is also putting together a digital feature called Canyon, which will see Smith and two actors (one being Brenden Fletcher from rollercoaster) travel to Utah, filming and writing the scripts as they go.

In addition, Smith is part of a group of filmmakers who are trying to develop audiences for Canadian films through the Internet. The site, fusefilm.com, will be launched at one of the rollercoaster festival screenings.

*Jean and Films de l’Isle going full blast

Rodrigue Jean (Full Blast) has just completed the first draft of his second French-language feature, which he will also direct. Entitled White Trash, it’s a road movie about ‘people taking a trip through northern Ontario and Quebec, getting lost and ending up in the Yukon.’ So far, there is no producer attached.

Projects in development at Les Films de l’Isle (producer of Full Blast) include Montreal Movement for Bravo! and Tele-Quebec, six one-hour docs on choreographers and artists who have propelled contemporary dance in Montreal to international acclaim; usa, also for Tele-Quebec, a 75-minute documentary portrait of the u.s., written and to be directed by photographer Pierre Guimond; Square Mile, a one-hour doc on the Scottish immigrants who designed Montreal’s Square Mile neighborhood, to be directed by Jean-Pierre Gariepy; and Still Life, an adaptation of Lynda Gaudreau’s contemporary dance piece of the same name, coproduced with Toronto-based Grimm Pictures for Bravo! and Tele-Quebec.

*A Priceless film from Waterford Girl’s Sienna

Sienna Films (Alan Moyle’s New Waterford Girl) is in development on Priceless, a feature-length action drama written and to be directed by Helen Lee, with shooting taking place in Toronto and Korea; Good Enough for Cary, a coming-of-age feature written by Ian Iqbal Rashid, coproduced with Martin Pope Productions of the u.k., and budgeted at $4 million; The Mysteries of Ice Fishing, a feature-length mystery thriller (wide-screen format), written and to be directed by Paul Fox, and budgeted at $5 million; and Fishing Up the Moon, a feature-length romantic comedy, written by Tricia Fish (New Waterford Girl).

Carl Bessai’s johnny was the first in a quartet of films focusing on crises at various stages of life. As a follow-up to johnny, which related to people in their late teens and early 20s, Badlands will focus on ‘finding out who you’re suppose to be’ in your 30s. The third film will look at people going through life in their 50s, followed by a look at the 65-70 age bracket. Badlands, described as a ‘sexy, weird, road comedy/drama,’ begins production in winter 2000.

*Three on the burner at Ransen’s Ranfilm

Ranfilm Productions, helmed by Mort Ransen (Touched) and Raymond Massey, is currently in development on The Liam Donnelly Story, based on the true-life events of falsely accused Simon Fraser University swim coach David Jones; The River, based on the stories of Bob McGee; and Sweet Potatoes, a comedy set in the Haitian cab-driving community of Montreal, to be written by acclaimed novelist Dany Laferriere.

*Paizs reinvents ‘noir’ in new script

top of the Food Chain (written by Phil Bedard and Larry Lalonde and produced by Suzanne Berger), is Winnipeg director John Paiz’s second feature film. Next he is slated to direct the children’s feature film Whiz Kids (working title), about two 13-year-old girls who run away from home. The coming-of-age story is penned by Carmel Suttor of Toronto.

Paiz has also cowritten a script with John Harvey of Winnipeg. Paiz describes the film as a ‘noir reinvented for the next millennium.’ A first draft is currently being circulated.

Top of the Food Chain, a 1950s sci-fi/pop-culture film, is distributed in Canada by Red Sky Entertainment. Victor Film in the u.k. is the foreign sales agent.

*Stand-Up Guys and take a bow

steel City Productions’ writing/producing team of Michael Cameron and Kirk Johnson have signed a deal with Critical Mass of Toronto to package the u.s. and foreign distribution deals for their $2-million feature film Stand-Up Guys, an action-comedy about five comics who rob a bank.

Steel City is also pitching Dead Game, a sci-fi action spec script where the hero dies and is brought back to life six times. The script is now at second draft stage.

Next up for Steel City is shooting Marker, a 35mm calling-card film about two hit women.

The company’s previous short Blind, directed by Deborah Day, recently sold to cbc and Showcase after its world premiere at the Montreal World Film Festival.