To a young producer, it sounds like a dream come true. After struggling to complete your feature film, you get accepted into the Toronto International Film Festival. After all, most every producer with eyes on the English-Canadian, North American and international markets wants in at TIFF, and out of all the Canuck features submitted (216 this year), only 20 to 30 will make the final cut.

So, now you’re in. According to the script, your film gets rave reviews. Audiences give you a standing ovation; sales agents and distributors are blown away at industry screenings. A mad, ugly bidding war ensues. Finally, you settle on the best multimillion-dollar offer, and begin penning your Oscar acceptance speech.

Well, that might be the case if your film is, say Thank You for Smoking, but this is the headline-grabbing rarity. The reality for nearly all Canuck producers is quite different. They’ve climbed a mountain just to make it to TIFF, but, in fact, they’ve completed only the first leg of a very long journey.

One apt case study is Eve & the Fire Horse, produced by Erik Paulsson, Shan Tam and Yves J. Ma. Director Julia Kwan’s lighthearted first feature about a Chinese girl who wrestles with religion and superstition preemed at TIFF two years ago, collecting some effusive notices. A flurry of deals seemed certain to come out of the fest.

In fact, there were none.

The reasons are several. The most obvious is the sheer size of TIFF. With around 260 feature films on display, and international buyers more focused on U.S. fare and name filmmakers and performers, how does a star-less Canadian flick made for under $2 million – as good as it might be – garner its share of attention?

In addition to its inherent handicaps, Eve & the Fire Horse had more working against it. Being programmed in the fest’s Canada First! section didn’t help. How many out-of-town buyers will run to the industry screening of something billed as a local film by a first-time director, at the expense of other titles from around the world? (At least it already had Mongrel Media on board to handle its Canadian release.)

Then there’s the ever-important scheduling of your industry screenings. In the case of Eve, its first was on TIFF’s opening Thursday, before fest guests had even put their luggage down. About 20 people showed up – mostly local film students, by one account.

Despite being largely off the radar of international sales agents, Eve producers did receive a number of offers, but none that pleased them. But where the film’s presence at TIFF did pay off was in one of its public screenings, which was attended by Geoffrey Gilmore, director of the Sundance Film Festival. Seeing how a crowd reacted to the funny, audience-friendly film, he went on to invite it to his fest – which eschews studio pics for indies – where it really got recognized.

Eve won a special jury prize in Park City, and no less than Roger Ebert gave it a ‘thumb way up’ review. The film landed a sales agent (Wide Management out of France), but still no distributor in the U.S. or anywhere else of note.

Realizing that film festival showings – even ones that go as well as Sundance – are no guarantee of anything, the producers have since taken matters into their own hands, and, this April, began a stateside promo campaign. It is a tough slog, but they’ve screened the film in more than 50 American markets – including a theatrical run in San Francisco – with Kwan showing up for interviews.

The producers generated e-mail lists at screenings to try to build support for the DVD, which launched a month ago. They’re doing direct sales through their website, and are anticipating the rental and download market three months down the road. They’ve also sold the film to Sundance Channel. They are basically exploring every avenue possible to try to see some coin out of this – more than any foreign distrib was willing to offer – and, gasp, even give something back to Telefilm Canada and their one private investor.

There are reportedly U.S. indie producers who have marketed their low-budget films in similar fashion and seen $1 million to $2 million for their efforts. Whether Eve can reach similar heights remains to be seen, but kudos to the producers for realizing that when you get into a major festival, your work has only begun.