Vancouver: All three gala films at the 22nd annual Vancouver International Film Festival will be Canadian.

Director Denys Arcand’s Cannes-winning The Barbarian Invasions opens the festival Sept. 25. Winnipeg director Guy Maddin gets the Oct. 4 Anniversary Gala slot with The Saddest Music in the World, and the Vancouver-made Arctic epic The Snow Walker – directed by Charles Martin Smith, adapted from a Farley Mowat story and starring Barry Pepper – will close the festival Oct. 10.

‘This is an unprecedented move for us,’ says festival director Alan Franey, ‘and represents not a change in direction, but the seizing of a special opportunity. Our sense is that these three proudly and inimitably Canadian films beg to be put centre stage for the way they collectively celebrate not only the rich geographical and cultural breadth of this country, but the happy, stylistic versatility of Canadian cinema today.’

Latin music is also featured among the 18 music- and dance-themed films on the VIFF program.

New titles include Bola De Nieve (director Jose Sanchez-Montes), following the life of the Cuban revolutionary-musician who died in 1971; Danish film Fado (director Anders Leifer), about Portugal’s signature musical style, and The Great Gato (director Ventura Pons), about singer-songwriter Gato Perez.

Meanwhile, the 18th annual Film and Television Trade Forum, a companion event to VIFF, takes place at UBC Robson Square Sept. 24-26, with the popular New Filmmakers’ Day set for Sept. 27.

Among the panels is a session called Case Studies of International Coproductions, featuring producers Gordon McLennan (Canada/Spain’s My Life Without Me) and Julie Baines (Canada/U.K.’s The Republic of Love). Accomplished television scribes Laurence Andries (Boomtown, Six Feet Under) and Michael MacLennan (Queer as Folk) speak at Episodic Television: The Success Stories. Screenwriters Jim Uhls (Fight Club) and Eric Axel Weiss (Buffalo Soldiers) discuss their craft in 28 Drafts Later: Adapting Material for the Screen.

VIFF has moved its popular Dragons & Tigers: The Cinemas of East Asia program to the first week of the two-week festival.

‘We moved the juried portion of Dragons & Tigers to avoid conflict with the Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea, which recently changed its dates,’ says Franey. ‘Vancouver, which is the largest festival showcase of East Asian films outside that continent, often serves as the first opportunity for East Asian filmmakers to bring their work to the attention of western audiences. We wanted to ensure they continued to have access to Vancouver as well as Pusan, which is the most important festival in East Asia.’

This year’s VIFF will use 10 theatres including the Granville Cineplex Odeon Theatres (popularly known as the Granville 7), The VISA Screening Room @ the Vogue Theatre, the Pacific Cinematheque and the Ridge. Previous venue, The Blinding Light cinema, recently closed.

‘We plan to screen more than 300 films in total and we project another record audience,’ says Franey.

-www.viff.org