Films by female and French-speaking directors took pride of place in the Canada Top Ten selections, announced early Tuesday by the Toronto International Film Festival Group. The annual list includes Deepa Mehta’s Heaven on Earth, Before Tomorrow by Marie-Helene Cousineau and Madeline Piujug Ivalu, Kari Skogland’s Fifty Dead Men Walking and Léa Pool’s Maman est chez le coiffeur, and form an unusually strong quartet of films by female directors.

The choices were ‘heartening,’ said TIFFG’s Steve Gravestock, who went on to praise the films for their variety, which range from ‘the lyrical and mythic, Before Tomorrow; to the political, Fifty Dead Men Walking; to a serious domestic drama, Heaven on Earth; to a slightly more comic treatment of family and generational issues, Maman est chez le coiffeur.’

Also on the list are four works by francophone filmmakers: documentarian Luc Bourdon’s engaging look at ’50s and ’60s Montreal La mémoire des anges, Benoît Pilon’s dark and powerful Ce qu’il faut pour vivre, Philippe Falardeau’s unblinking portrait of a youthful hellion C’est pas moi, je le jure! , and New Brunswick-based Rodrique Jean’s tragic Lost Song, which won the best Canadian film award at this year’s TIFF.

Representing Ontario along with Mehta are Bruce McDonald, with his linguistic horror flick Pontypool and Atom Egoyan, whose Adoration first screened at Cannes. Characteristically modest, Egoyan praised his friend’s Pontypool for its ‘originality’ and then reflected on the concept of the Canada Top Ten. ‘We’re being bombarded with so many choices and this offers us the chance to focus on our own films for a change. It’s a great opportunity to keep cinema culture alive and thriving,’ said Egoyan.

The 10 were chosen by a national panel consisting of B.C. filmmaker Ann Marie Fleming, TIFF co-director Cameron Bailey, Halifax-based director/producer Camelia Frieberg, producer Damon D’Oliveira, Toronto journalist Glenn Sumi, Calgary CBC Radio host Jim Brown and three members of Montreal’s film community: industry consultant Joanne Senécal, journalist and film programmer Matthew Hays and documentarian Yung Chang.

A separate panel on short films selected Guy Edoin’s La Battue, Chris Chong Chan Fui’s Block B, Theodore Ushev’s Drux Flux, Michael Rollo’s Ghosts and Gravel Roads, Semi Chellas’ Green Door, Denis Villeneuve’s Next Floor, Kevin Lee Burton’s Nikamowin, Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre’s Passages, Kazik Radwanski’s Princess Margaret Blvd. and Patrick Gazé’s Mon nom est Victor Gazon.

Gravestock is pleased with the ongoing success of the Top Ten, many of which will travel to Vancouver’s Pacific Cinematheque and Ottawa’s Canadian Film Institute in February. ‘We seem to have really struck a nerve and people have responded,’ he said. ‘The vast majority of the screenings sell out. We get most of the filmmakers to attend their films and discuss them with the audience. And the distributors are very supportive.’