Fresh off its recent bow at Sundance, where it won praise for thesp Tatiana Maslany, Mongrel Media is cautiously rolling out Newfoundland writer/director Adriana Maggs’ Grown Up Movie Star.

The drama opens at Toronto’s Scotiabank theater on Friday, followed by St. John’s and other cities on Feb. 19.

Maslany (Heartland, Instant Star) plays a precocious teen who, along with her sister, is left in the care of their father, a disgraced NHL star, when their mother walks out. It also stars Shawn Doyle (Big Love).

Variety recently cheered Maslany’s ‘naturalistic, often enchanting performance,’ and predicted that critical reaction to the Saskatchewan native will be ‘very favorable.’

The film, which played in competition at Sundance, has yet to lock a U.S. distributor though there’s ‘lots of interest,’ according to E1 Films’ Charlotte Mickie, who is handling international sales.

Also opening on Friday:

• Bernard Émond’s La donation moves to English Canada via E1 Entertainment, which is opening the acclaimed Quebec drama at Toronto’s indie Royal cinema, where it will screen in French with English subtitles. It was named one of Canada’s Top Ten films of 2009 by TIFF.

• KinoSmith has Sean Garrity’s controversial drama Zooey & Adam, about a couple coming to terms with a rape that leads to pregnancy, playing at Winnipeg’s Cinematheque. It will expand to cities including Toronto in March.

• Among Hollywood releases is the Mel Gibson-starrer Edge of Darkness, on 3,000 screens through Warner Bros., while Buena Vista has the rom-com When in Rome, featuring Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel, on a reported 2,200 screens.