The Toronto International Film Festival continued its focus on documentaries Wednesday by unveiling another 23 titles, following last week’s announcement its 36th edition will open with Davis Guggenheim’s U2 doc The Sky Down.

No Canadian docs were unveiled Wednesday, just international titles like Werner Herzog’s triple-homicide investigation doc Into the Abyss, and Morgan Spurlock’s Comic-Con: Episode IV ­ A Fan’s Hope, a look at comic book conventions (pictured above, with Stan Lee, at Comic-Con this year).

Oscar winner Jessica Yu is also bringing Toronto’s Real to Reel sidebar Last Call at the Oasis, about a worldwide water shortage, while veteran British doc maker Nick Broomfield is chasing controversial U.S. politician and celebrity Sarah Palin in Sarah Palin ­ You Betcha!

Other high-profile documentaries bound for Toronto, most of which are receiving world bows, include Alex Gibney’s The Last Gladiators, Ron Fricke’s Samsara, Jonathan Demme’s I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad and the Beautiful and Gary Hustwit’s Urbanized.

TIFF doc programmer Thom Powers also booked for the festival’s Masters series two films: Wim Wenders’ 3D dance doc Pina, and This is Not a Film, a day-in-the-life portrait of filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who is under house arrest in Iran.

Toronto’s Midnight Madness program includes world premieres for Bobcat Goldthwait’s God Bless America, which takes aim at spoiled American teens, French director Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo’s gothic thriller Livid and Lovely Molly, from The Blair Witch Project director Eduardo Sánchez.

And since no Midnight Madness program is complete without a Japanese gore pic, this year it comes via cult director Katsuhito Ishii’s Smuggler, about a man who takes a job as a smuggler of dead bodies, only to earn the wrath of a psychotic gangster.

“Martial arts assassins, cops and robbers, escaped lunatics and vampire ballerinas will take over Ryerson Theatre every night at midnight, and deliver the shocking and rocking experience that our loyal audience flocks to take part in,” Colin Geddes, who programs Midnight Madness, said in a statement.

Away from the Hollywood spotlight, TIFF also Wednesday unveiled its Vanguard program of cutting-edge pictures from overseas directors.

These include Victor Ginzburg’s Generation P, a Russian-U.S. collaboration set in 1990s Moscow and Thai director Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s Headshot, about a hit man who wakes up after being shot in the head, only to realize he sees everything literally upside down.

Also Toronto-bound is Lou Ye’s Love and Bruises, a China/France coproduction; Joachim Trier’s Oslo, 31. August, the follow-up to the director’s Reprise; Australian director Justin Kurzel’s Snowtown, which stars Lucas Pittaway and Louise Harris; The Year of the Tiger, by Chilean director Sebastian Lelio; and Carre Blanc, the Sami Bouajila-starrer from director Jean-Baptiste Leonetti.

TIFF also filled out its City to City sidebar, which this year focuses on films from and about Buenos Aires.

Leading the lineup is Alison Murray’s Caprichosos de San Telmo, an Argentina/Canada coproduction about working-class musicians and dancers in a Buenos Aires neighborhood and The Cat Vanishes, Carlos Sorin’s latest feature about a woman who questions her sanity after her cat disappears.

Other Argentinian films booked for the City to City sidebar: Roman Cardenas’ The Stones (Las Piedras); Juan Minujin’s debut feature Vaquero; Pablo Trapero’s Crane World, about a crane operator in Buenos Aires, Nicolas Prividera’s Fatherland; and Tamae Garateguy’s Pompeya, a first solo feature.

Elsewhere, the TIFF Kids’ sidebar will feature a world bow for U.S. director Bess Kargman’s First Position, a documentary about six international dancers preparing for a ballet competition, and Japanese director Hiroyuki Okiura’s A Letter To Momo, where a young woman deals with the aftermath of her father’s death.

Also bound for Toronto as part of the TIFF Kids’ program is A Monster in Paris, from French director Bibo Bergeron, and The Flying Machine, a Poland/China coproduction from directors Martin Clapp, Geoff Lindsey and Dorota Kobiela that stars Heather Graham.

The Toronto International Film Festival, which is set to run from September 8 to 18, will make additional title announcements in the coming weeks.

Photo: Morgan Spurlock and Stan Lee at Comic-Con 2011 (Photo: popculturegeek.com, Flickr Creative Commons)