Karen Bruce is the Toronto International Film Festival’s director of Canadian Initiatives. Each day of the festival, she’ll share her top programming picks and inside tips for getting the most out of the TIFF experience.

You survived the weekend! Can you briefly recap highlights on the Canadian industry front?
I barely survived, it feels like it’s day 48! The Canadian industry had a great weekend: We had our first ever TIFF Rising Stars, which closed the weekend with a reception at the Drake. All four of them – Sarah Allen, Katie Boland, Sarah Gadon and Keon Mohajeri – were in attendance.

David Cronenberg’s gala [A Dangerous Method] was also well received, as was Sarah Gadon – and Cronenberg did take credit for finding her!

One of the most fun parts was the Goon premiere on Saturday and Jay Baruchel and his fiancee Alison Pill were huge hit on the red carpet – we had a Zamboni there and everything. Alison had a very sweet response to it, I won’t use all the language she used, but she said, ‘Where else would you premiere a hockey film?’

It was generally a big weekend for Canadian film: I’m Yours by Leonard Farlinger premiered last night, starring Karine Vanassse (Polytechnique). It’s her first English-language feature film and she was picked up to be in the new TV series Pan Am, so she’s definitely someone to watch. Carl Bessai’s Sisters & Brothers also premiered and one of its stars, Cory Monteith (Glee), was here – it was pretty crazy with lots of Gleeks here!

What personalities will appear in the TIFF Filmmakers Lounge today?
Stuart Ford from IM Global is coming in at 2 p.m. as part of the Moguls one-on-one session. Telefilm’s Talent to Watch is on at 12 noon and they have a great lineup for their session Faraway So Close: New Canadian Stories including Deepa Mehta, Carl Bessai, Philippe Falardeau (Monsieur Lazhar), Ivan Grbovic (Romeo Eleven) and Ingrid Veninger (I am a good person/I am a bad person), and indieWire will be hosting an interview with Guy Maddin and actor Udo Kier for Keyhole at 4 p.m.

They’re all broken down differently – Stuart is someone more corporate whose been in the industry for a long time, then you have someone who’s more creative like Maddin, talking about his art of filmmaking and how he always challenges himself with storytelling. As for the filmmakers in the Talent to Watch, they all approach their crafts differently, but they’ll also have things in common, so it’ll be interesting to hear what that is.

We’re at the halfway point – from TIFF’s perspective, how is the festival going so far?
I have to say, there’s been positive energy running throughout the fest – having the Filmmakers’ Lounge for the first time at the Hyatt has made such a huge difference because there’s a buzz around everyone being in a central location. The weather is cooperating and everyone’s happy with the fest lineup this year. Last year, the Lounge wasn’t far away, but it felt like the wrong direction. People hit the ground running, knowing that everything was going to be more central. At the same time, they didn’t realize how easy it would be to get around and they genuinely seem pleased with that.

What Canadians films should we look out for today?
Two really strong Short Cuts Canada programs (3 and 4) are premiering today. With Short Cuts Canada 3, we have six films from some really great, emerging talent, including one from director Ian Harnarine who just came out from the Talent Lab with Doubles With Slight Pepper.

For Short Cuts Canada. 4, we have seven films, one of them being a Canadian-Italian copro short Derailments (Chelsea McMullan), which you don’t see often. It’s a black and white animated film and follows the fragments of Fellini’s unfinished film, Il viaggio diMastorna.

We also have the premiere of Jean-Marc Vallee’s feature film Café de flore at 10 p.m at the Princess of Wales.

He had a breakout success with C.R.A.Z.Y. at the festival before, so he was definitely a director to watch, then he went to make something completely different with Emily Blunt on The Young Victoria. A lot of people are interested to see how he keeps changing with his filmmaking and this [Cafe] is back to being a French film.

388 Arletta Avenue has its second screening today – it’s bit of a thriller and has been getting good buzz.