Docs and mock-docs were among the best films made in Canada in 2004, according to organizers of the Toronto International Film Festival, who late last month revealed their fourth annual Canada’s Top Ten list – giving nods to six doc and doc-ish pics including Shake Hands with the Devil by Peter Raymont and Michael Dowse’s tongue-in-cheek It’s All Gone Pete Tong.

‘What strikes me most about Canada’s Top Ten this year is the number of emerging filmmakers represented,’ said TIFF boss Piers Handling, addressing a crowded room of filmmakers at a downtown Toronto bar. ‘The spectrum and scope of films on the list speaks to a new energy and continued vibrance within the Canadian film industry.

‘It reflects the semi-erratic and very eclectic productions of the country,’ he added. ‘It’s a mix of the popular and the artistic.’

The top 10 movies, picked by a cross-Canada panel of critics and other cinephiles, are:

* Childstar – Don McKellar

* Elles étaient cinq – Ghyslaine Côte

* I, Claudia – Chris Abraham

* It’s All Gone Pete Tong – Michael Dowse

* La Peau blanche – Daniel Roby

* Ryan – Chris Landreth

* Saint Ralph – Michael McGowan

* ScaredSacred – Velcrow Ripper

* Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire – Peter Raymont

* What Remains of Us – François Prévost and Hugo Latulippe

Faux docs also got high marks. Michael Dowse’s tongue-in-cheek It’s All Gone Pete Tong, about a rave DJ who is losing his hearing, was cheered by the panel as a ‘redemptive study of celebrityhood,’ and first-time helmer Chris Abraham scored with his doc-style adaptation of the play I, Claudia, about the family life of a troubled young girl.

‘We found that the documentary style, which is an undercurrent in the play, served the film format – the characters are aware of the camera,’ says Abraham. ‘We didn’t hit that nail over the head but we shot it as a doc and that freed up the characters to act naturally from take to take.’

-www.e.bell.ca/filmfest