Rookie feature filmmakers dominate the annual list of Canada’s Top Ten of 2009, announced Monday by the Toronto International Film Festival Group.

With the exception of Quebec filmmaking vet Denis Villeneuve, who received a nod for Polytechnique, this year’s list is predominantly made up of up-and-comers including actor-turned-director Peter Stebbings, for his superhero flick Defendor, and Xavier Dolan’s acclaimed J’ai tué ma mère — which recently was submitted as Canada’s Oscar entry for the foreign-language prize.

‘A lot of the established filmmakers didn’t have a film this year,’ TIFF head Piers Handling told Playback Daily at the Toronto event, pointing to festival regulars David Cronenberg, Deepa Mehta, Guy Maddin, and Denys Arcand. He added that it’s a ’cause for optimism that youngsters are stepping up.’

Montreal writer/director Alexandre Franchi made the list with his thriller The Wild Hunt, and hopes this recognition will encourage his distributor TVA Films to lock a release date.

‘This is great to put us on the map in Canada with the public and the public funding agencies… it gets us known in the industry,’ he says, adding that there’s a real youth market for the film, about a young man who crashes a medieval re-enactment game to win his girlfriend back from a charismatic suitor. Wild Hunt was named best first Canadian feature film at TIFF.

Also representing Montreal is Jacob Tierney with his comedy The Trotsky, Denis Côté’s drama Carcasses, Matthew Bissonnette’s road-trip movie Passenger Side, and Bernard Émond with La Donation, currently doing well in theaters for E1 Entertainment.

‘We can use it as a stick to beat some people into the cinema,’ joked Bissonnette of the recognition, looking ahead to the film’s spring release via KinoSmith. ‘No, seriously, ever since I was three or four years old, being in the top 10 has been my life’s dream,’ he added.

Also on the list, an annual tradition since 2001, were works by two female directors: Ruba Nadda’s romantic drama Cairo Time and Sherry White’s Newfoundland-set drama Crackie.

Meanwhile, the Top Ten short films of 2009 include Chris Landreth’s acclaimed The Spine. Films in the Top Ten will screen in Toronto at TIFF’s Cinematheque Jan. 14-21.

With files from Suzan Ayscough

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This story has been corrected. The Wild Hunt won best first Canadian feature film at TIFF and not best Canadian feature as previously reported.