Picture if you will – the sight of Piers Handling strutting around a stadium-size concert stage, hips shaking, tongue extended, belting out the lyrics to Start Me Up, while a craggy Keith Richards coughs up three-chord riffs on an open-G-tuned Telecaster.

It doesn’t really fit, does it? Which is why we will let Sir Mick Jagger help restore Toronto his way, and leave Handling to do what he does best.

And what Handling does best is helm the Toronto International Film Festival, which, in its 28th edition, will screen 336 films from 55 countries, Sept. 4-13. If the Stones’ record-setting concert in July was the first event that allowed the city to reclaim some of the international spotlight – and not in a negative way – then TIFF 2003, if it goes off without a hitch, would proclaim that it is truly business as usual in Toronto.

‘Barring raining frogs or a plague of locusts, we’re good to go,’ said Michele Maheux, managing director of TIFF, at the fest’s final preview press conference.

All initial indications are that the fading SARS crisis in Toronto will have little or no impact on TIFF 2003. Organizers report that most types of audience passes are, as usual, already sold out. But don’t think the fest braintrust is cocky.

‘It’s been a very difficult year for the film festival,’ Handling told the assemblage of reporters, alluding to obvious ‘trying circumstances.’

And so TIFF has brought out the heavy artillery. For many years it has been an international festival, but in recent times the Hollywood element – stars treading the red carpet at Roy Thomson Hall and hawking mainstream features at press junkets, sometimes mere days before the films are released – has become increasingly prevalent. While TIFF executives haven’t traditionally gone out of their way to promote this side of the fest – it usually sells itself – this year is a special case.

Thus Handling rhymed off the list of celebrity filmmakers and talent partaking in this year’s festivities with particular gusto. They include Denzel Washington, Nicole Kidman, Nicholas Cage, Jerry Bruckheimer, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Sir Ridley Scott, Sir Ian McKellen, Robert Altman, Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Harrelson, Kate Beckinsale, Robert Downey Jr., Sean Penn, Omar Sharif, Cate Blanchett, Val Kilmer, Joel Schumacher, Jonathan Demme, Neil Young, Robert Benton, Neve Campbell, Jack Black, Jennifer Jason-Leigh, Daryl Hannah and Dan Akroyd.

The fest’s ability to draw such industry heavyweights could have a far-reaching impact on the local biz. Film and TV projects have avoided Toronto in droves this summer – in large part due to SARS – choosing instead to film in Montreal, Vancouver or Winnipeg, or choosing to not come to Canada at all. By bringing filmmakers and jittery stars here and showing them how passe SARS really is, the message should get back to Hollywood that, hey, Toronto’s open for business again.

This is not to say that domestic cinema will be buried at this year’s fest. Au contraire. It promises to be a strong contingent of Canadian films, with several of the nation’s top directors returning with new works. The Barbarian Invasions, Denys Arcand’s highly touted sequel to The Decline of the American Empire, will be kicking things off at this year’s Opening Night Gala. Deepa Mehta’s adaptation of Carol Shields’ The Republic of Love and Quebec box-office hit Mambo Italiano will also get the gala treatment.

Meanwhile, the Perspective Canada series will spotlight 17 domestic feature productions or copros. These include Gary Burns’ opener, A Problem with Fear; Vincenzo Natali’s Nothing; John Greyson’s South African copro Proteus; The Corporation, a documentary co-directed by Mark Achbar (Manufacturing Consent); and Hollywood North, the long-in-the-works directorial bow from producer Peter O’Brian (The Grey Fox). Also on the slate is Jacob Tierney’s feature debut Twist, the only North American film entered into Critics’ Week at the Venice Film Festival.

Natali’s Cypher, his sophomore effort that was shot in Toronto with American cash and has yet to get distribution in these parts, will finally screen as part of Midnight Madness, which highlights films ranging from the seriously quirky to the sick and twisted.

Notable Canuck features spill out into other programs as well.

The Masters sidebar, which presents new works from accomplished directors, will screen the doc Dying at Grace from Allan King, Canada’s verite auteur. Visions, a spotlight on filmmakers who employ innovative storytelling or technology, will include Sylvain Chomet’s Belleville Rendez-Vous, an animated France/Canada/Belgium feature copro.

Special Presentations features the world premiere of Robert Lepage’s La Face Cachee de la Lune; Ron Mann’s doc Go Further, focusing on Woody Harrelson; La Grande seduction, the surprise Quebec comedy hit; and Michel Boujenah’s France/Canada copro Pere et Fils. Guy Maddin’s The Saddest Music in the World makes its North American bow, while The Gospel of John, the Garth Drabinsky-backed ‘visual bible,’ has its world premiere. Actor-turned-director Charles Martin Smith (Never Cry Wolf) adapts Farley Mowat this time from behind the camera in The Snow Walker.

East Coast director Thom Fitzgerald’s The Event, a U.S. copro that will open the Atlantic Film Festival, makes its national debut in the Contemporary World Cinema showcase. Real to Reel, which assembles the best of international docs, has included the Canuck ‘rock ‘n’ roll odyssey’ Festival Express by Bob Smeaton.

Other programs at TIFF 2003 include Discovery, which spotlights films from new international filmmakers; Planet Africa, which introduces local audiences to the oft-neglected output from that continent; and Wavelengths, the showcase for experimental works. The National Cinema spotlight this year is on the ‘New Brazilian Cinema.’

And, of course, the films aren’t the whole story. The Rogers Industry Centre helps those in the biz benefit from the global filmmaking talent that will be in town. TIFF has assembled various high-profile guests to participate in Master Classes, conversations and panels on topics that are top of mind to the international film community (see story, p. T-8).

Meanwhile, the European Film Promotion brings awareness of European filmmakers and movies – there are 100 playing at TIFF – to industry guests. Unifrance USA will set up shop to help promote the fest’s 17 featured films from France and 15 copros.

And then there are the schmooze-soaked parties. Expect festivalgoers to party just a little bit harder this year, as they celebrate not only the return of TIFF, but also perhaps the return of health to the Toronto film community.

Scheduling details and additional information is available at the TIFF website.

-www.e.bell.ca/filmfest/2003