The main challenge for the 31st annual Toronto International Film Festival (Sept. 7-16), with regards to its Canadian movie contingent, is how to drum up sufficient public interest despite the absence of the country’s top-name directors.

‘This is an unusual year for Canada, as the dominant players – Atom Egoyan, David Cronenberg, Denys Arcand – aren’t around. So there’s an interesting opening from which some Canadian films may pop out,’ says Noah Cowan, TIFF co-director.

Unable to rely on the usual suspects, organizers will look to homegrown up-and-comers and less well-known filmmaking vets to garner their share of press and business.

Northern filmmakers Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn clinched this year’s opening night gala slot for their Inuit epic The Journals of Knud Rasmussen (see story, p. T4) – their follow-up to 2001’s Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner – ahead of its release in southern Canada three weeks later through the currently troubled Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture Distribution.

Also getting the red carpet treatment at Roy Thomson Hall, as part of a two-day press junket, is the Alzheimer’s drama Away from Her, Sarah Polley’s debut turn as feature director (p. T6).

‘[This film] defined my life for a long time,’ says the acclaimed actress-turned-helmer. ‘Now I’ll see if all of my ideas will speak to people.’ For the world premiere, Polley will be backed by venerable star wattage in the form of Julie Christie, Gordon Pinsent, Olympia Dukakis, Michael Murphy and Wendy Crewson.

Another possible breakout is Guy Maddin, Winnipeg’s auteur of the absurd, whose feature Brand Upon the Brain! (p. T7) may impress like his Genie Award-winning short film Heart of the World did in 2000. Both are loving throwbacks to early cinema – silent works shot in black and white.

‘I’d be surprised if it didn’t have a similar impact,’ says Steve Gravestock, TIFF associate director, Canadian programming. In a Special Presentation at the Elgin Theatre, Brand Upon the Brain! will be accompanied by a nine-member orchestra, a young male singer and a narrator.

‘It’s crazy,’ Gravestock says of the film. ‘It’s kind of his biography. It’s bananas. I can’t think of anyone but Guy who could make that sort of film.’

Also likely to garner audience interest is Fido (p. T8), Andrew Currie’s zombie comedy-drama making its world premiere as the Canada First! opener on Sept. 7. Billy Connolly, Carrie-Anne Moss, Dylan Baker, Henry Czerny and Tim Blake Nelson star in the genre picture about the undead showing up in a suburban town as house pets and domestic workers. The film has already sold into 20 territories.

A film that comes to TIFF with both buzz and some key markets open is Philippe Falardeau’s French-language Canada/France/Belgium copro Congorama (p. T11), follow-up to the director’s Genie and Jutra winner La Moitié gauche du frigo (2000). It screens as a Special Presentation after having closed the Director’s Fortnight in Cannes.

‘Some people will take a second look in Toronto; others will see it for the first time,’ says producer Luc Déry. While Christal Films has the film in Canada, and sales agent The Works secured key European sales in Cannes, U.S. rights were left on the table.

TIFF2006 will screen a particularly strong mix of Canadian documentaries (p. T19), including 10 features, six making their world premieres.

Screening as a Special Presentation, Jennifer Baichwal’s Manufactured Landscapes chronicles Canadian artist Edward Burtynsky crossing China to photograph monumental environmental debris from that country’s manufacturing revolution.

Mongrel Media already has the Canadian rights, but Rhombus International will be shopping the doc to international buyers as it makes its world bow.

‘The main focus in Toronto will be on foreign sales. We want the film to have a theatrical life in the U.S. and Europe before a broadcast life in those territories,’ Baichwal says.

Of course, as always, Canadian films face stiff competition for the TIFF spotlight. The 20-strong field of gala premieres at Roy Thomson Hall, including eight star-driven American titles and another eight European films, represents the sweet spot for this year’s unofficial – but usually robust – market activity, according to Cowan.

‘Acquisition sales don’t get much bigger than this,’ he says of U.S. titles like the Reese Witherspoon-starrer Penelope, El Cantante starring Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, and older chick flick Bonneville, with Jessica Lange and Joan Allen, and accessible European films such as Susanne Bier’s After the Wedding and Margarethe von Trotta’s I Am the Other Woman – all of which come to Toronto with North American rights up for grabs.

Last year, a US$7-million distribution deal made at TIFF for Thank You for Smoking made headlines, and rights for Trust the Man and Dave Chappelle’s Block Party went for nearly as much.

Giulia Filippelli, head of TIFF’s sales and industry office, says her team will also reach out to film buyers and sellers coming from as far as Asia and South America looking to break into the North American distribution market.

‘I want to equally help the mini-majors as well as the small distributor from Paraguay or Argentina who comes to find a hidden gem that could become the big hit of their careers,’ Filippelli says.

To keep Canadians top-of-mind at the international event, Telefilm Canada is sponsoring the inaugural International Finance Forum, a one-day conference to help forge official copros between Canadian and foreign producers. In a festival some believe is now the world’s most important, it is an initiative that Wayne Clarkson – Telefilm’s executive director and former head of the fest – takes very seriously.

‘It’s gotten tougher,’ he says of Canadians looking for profile at TIFF. ‘The festival’s bigger and more crowded, and the obstacles have increased.’

To what extent this year’s crop of Canadian filmmakers overcome those obstacles remains to be seen.

www.bell.ca/filmfest