The 28th Toronto International Film Festival will open on Sept. 4 with Denys Arcand’s Les Invasions Barbares. This marks the third time an Arcand film has opened TIFF (the others are The Decline of the American Empire in 1986 and Stardom in 2000). The film will be screened at Toronto’s Roy Thompson Hall for Astral Media’s opening-night gala.

‘Were you that desperate this year that you had to invite me again?’ asked Arcand, joking with festival director Piers Handling at a press conference in late June. ‘Toronto has always been good to me. My films have been well received here.’

The only other Canadian gala announced thus far is Emile Gaudreault’s Mambo Italiano, starring Paul Sorvino. It is the director’s first English-language feature. Handling calls this ‘a very strong year for Canadian cinema’ and refers to Mambo as ‘a superb comedy.’

Mambo and Invasions are both produced through Montreal’s Cinemaginaire and both have already screened in Quebec and garnered positive box-office returns. Invasions also screened at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival and picked up awards for best screenplay (Arcand) and best actress (Marie-Josee Croze).

This year’s festival also boasts the world premiere of Robert Altman’s latest, The Company, starring Guelph, ON’s Neve Campbell, and the North American premiere of Lars von Trier’s Dogville – the first in the Danish director’s trilogy about America – starring Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman (The Hours).

Films already named for the Masters program (reserved for films by directors who have reached the upper echelon of international filmmaking respectability) are John Sayles’ Casa de Los Babys, which will make its world premiere at TIFF, and L’histoire de Marie et Julien by Jacques Rivette, which will make its North American debut in Toronto.

This year’s National Cinema program will spotlight Brazil for a second time (the first was in 1982, when Handling started with the festival as a programmer). Already booked for screenings are Hector Babenco’s Carandiru, Eliane Caffe’s The Story Tellers and the Jose Padilha documentary Bus 174, among others.

And for a fourth consecutive year, TIFF will feature a classic silent film with musical accompaniment from some of Toronto’s top musicians. This year’s selection is the 1925 classic The Merry Widow from eccentric filmmaker Erich von Stroheim, with music under the direction of conductor Berndt Heller (who conducted the score to Nosferatu in 2001).

Titles announced for the festival as part of the Contemporary World Cinema program include Osama, Kitchen Stories, The Mother, Shara, The Principles of Lust, Young Adam, Prosti, Noi Albinoi, Stormy Weather, Sansa and Depuis qu’otar est parti, all of which will screen for the first time in North America. John Crowley’s Intermission will receive its Canadian premiere. -www.bell.ca/filmfest