The Department of Canadian Heritage has been particularly vocal about the need to better market domestic films aboard, and is putting its money where its mouth is as a supporter of the Marketing Assistance Program at TIFF 2005.

New to this year’s fest, MAP seeks to help Canadian filmmakers land foreign sales by providing marketing and publicity support to four Canadian films ­- two features and two shorts screening at this year’s fest.

‘I am very excited to launch MAP, as it is a project very close to my heart, and I believe it will truly help to fill a recognized gap for the Canadian filmmaking community,’ says Kelley Alexander, TIFF’s director of industry initiatives.

Canuck filmmakers screening their works at the fest without a world sales agent or Canadian distributor on board are eligible for MAP assistance. Projects will be chosen based on financial need, artistic quality and commercial potential. Publicity experts then work with the teams to identify each film’s audience and develop marketing strategies. A selection committee will be made up of TIFF industry, marketing and communications staff.

It appears to be a good year to launch MAP, as the Ontario Media Development Corporation Sales Office, TIFF’s unofficial market, anticipates a 40% increase over last year’s number of film buyers attending the festival. The OMDC office, located during the fest at the Sutton Place Hotel, will provide a venue for filmmakers and industry attendees to rub elbows with more than 1,000 sales delegates from about 530 international companies.

TIFF’s Talent Lab returns this year to offer 22 emerging filmmakers (out of 150 applicants) a chance to participate in creative workshops guided by top industry talent. Canadian author Michael Ondaatje (The English Patient) and Danish producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen (Dogville) sit on the Talent Lab board, and session leaders at press time include U.K. filmmaker Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham, I Dream of Jeannie), docmaker Kim Longinotto (The Day I Will Never Forget), and U.K. producer Jeremy Thomas (Tideland, Naked Lunch). More industry participants will be announced closer to the festival.

The 22 filmmakers in Talent Lab will be given Motorola video-capturing mobile phones in advance to create ‘MotoFilms,’ self-portraits to be shared peer-to-peer. The project will then be addressed during the fest in a panel discussion about mobile content and technology.

Telefilm Canada’s Pitch This! returns to TIFF for a sixth edition. A half-dozen finalists are selected to pitch their film idea to a live audience, including a professional advisory committee that will then select the $10,000 winner for best pitch. The prize money is used toward the project’s production costs. The shortlist of Pitch This! contestants had not been released by press time.

Meanwhile, TIFF 2005 audiences will, for the first time, be able to join industry insiders at the Mavericks session, with tickets available for a series of presentations revealing the biz insights and upcoming projects of film veterans.

This year’s lineup includes Hollywood filmmaker Ivan Reitman, who is producing the Trailer Park Boys’ jump to the big screen, and stop-motion animation guru Nick Park, who brings his feature Wallace & Gromit – The Curse of the Were-Rabbit to the fest. Other Maverick sessions include documentary legend Albert Maysles, who, with late brother David, made the classics Salesman and Gimme Shelter, and performance artist Laurie Anderson, who will present her HD short Hidden Inside Mountains, commissioned by Japan’s World Expo 2005.

The Mavericks program, with its intimate Q&A sessions, proved so successful last year that fest organizers decided to open it up to the public. TIFF programmer Jane Schoettle says that it was no problem getting the high-profile participants to buy into the new format.

‘We had access to extraordinary people, and it was a chance to enrich Toronto audiences, who are already world renowned for their sophistication and film savvy. All we had to do was ask,’ she says, adding that she is excited by this year’s roster. ‘Maysles has 50 years experience, so if you love his films, here is your chance to be in the same room with him to listen to him talk about his work.’

Moderators include local filmmaker Patricia Rozema; Richard Corliss, film reviewer for TIME Magazine; Reel to Real critic Richard Crouse; and Robert Koehler, writer for Variety and Cinema Scope. Sessions will take place at the Ryerson and Isabel Bader theaters, with tickets going on sale Sept. 7.