The North by Northeast Festivals and Conference kicks off in Toronto today, and with 44 music-themed films screening in the film program, there’s an opportunity for filmmakers to premiere – and sell – their projects to a global audience, says Cameron Carpenter, NXNE film festival manager and assistant programmer.

“What we’ve noticed in the last couple years is there are a lot more distributors and worldwide sales agents showing up to the film festival; and a lot more of the directors are coming as well,” Carpenter, who works with film programmer Ambrose Roche to select the films, tells Playback.

“It’s becoming a place where they can actually strike deals. A lot of it is Ambrose going to other film festivals and knowing distributors, and [with] my background in music, I think between the two of us, we manage to marry a lot of nice deals for some our filmmakers,” he adds.

While the program has been shaved down from about 70 films, Carpenter says fewer films mean multiple screenings and more flexibility for people to see the films at this year’s venues – The Royal Cinema, NFB Mediatheque and the Toronto Underground Cinema – and therefore more exposure for filmmakers.

He adds that the crossover between the film and interactive programs keeps the filmmakers on the radar throughout the festival.

Some Canadian standouts in this year’s film program, says Carpenter, include My Father and the Man in Black (pictured), directed by Jonathan Holiff, son of Johnny Cash’s former manager Saul Holiff. The story is “as much about a father-son relationship as it is about the relationship between Johnny and Saul,” says Carpenter.

Slaughter Nick for President, the story of how  Canadian actor Rob Stewart, who starred as Nick Slaughter in U.S. series Tropical Heat, became a cultural icon for in Serbia, he says, “touches on acting and stardom in the most weird places, and has this undercurrent punk rock aesthetic to it as well.”

Other standouts from Carpenter are Ages and Stages: The Story of the Meligrove Band, Ghostface Killah & Toronto’s Apollo Kids and What Did You Expect? The Archers of Loaf at Cat’s Cradle, which will have its world premiere at the festival.

The film festival screenings start Monday at 5:30 p.m. with Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould, in celebration of Gould’s 80th birthday, at the NFB Mediatheque.