The 30th Toronto International Film Festival unveiled its complete 2005 lineup at a press conference in Nathan Phillips Square Aug. 23, announcing that 335 films from 52 countries, including 109 world premieres, will screen during the 10-day event.

David J. Burke’s Edison -­ a B.C.-shot thriller about a young journalist investigating police corruption, played by pop-star Justin Timberlake – will serve as the festival’s closing-night gala. Edison also stars Morgan Freeman and fest favorite Kevin Spacey.

Other TIFF galas include world premieres of Stanley Tong’s martial arts adventure flick The Myth starring Jackie Chan, Guy Ritchie’s crime drama Revolver starring Jason Statham, and Stephen Frears’ latest comedy/drama, Mrs. Henderson Presents, starring Dame Judi Dench. Martin Scorsese’s feature doc about Bob Dylan, No Direction Home, will debut at TIFF in the 16-film Masters series.

Isabella Rossellini will take part in the Dialogues: Talking With Pictures program, in which filmmakers and celebrities present films that have inspired them or have been significant to their careers. Rossellini and director Guy Maddin will introduce My Dad Is 100 Years Old, Maddin’s new short about director Roberto Rossellini – Isabella’s father. The short will be followed by a screening of Rossellini’s 1945 classic Rome, Open City. Liza Minnelli will also be on hand, presenting her restored concert film Liza With a Z, directed by Bob Fosse.

NewFest to honor Spry

The New Montreal FilmFest will pay a posthumous tribute to director Robin Spry. The 10-time Genie Award winner, whose National Film Board documentary work in the 1960s and ’70s helped Canada gain worldwide respectability in nonfiction filmmaking, was killed in a car accident in March.

The fest will run a retrospective series of Spry’s best work, including his Flowers on a One-Way Street (1967), Prologue (1969), Action: The October Crisis of 1970 (1973), Reaction: A Portrait of a Society in Crisis (1973) and One Man (1977).

Also featured is the world premiere of Quebec director Robert Morin’s Pow! Noel, as well as screenings of Thomas Vinterberg’s Dear Wendy, Tetsuya Nomura and Takeshi Nozue’s animated Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Pierre Jolivet’s Zim & Co. and Amos Gitai’s Free Zone, which garnered Hanna Laslo the best-actress award at the Cannes Film Festival this year.

Also on tap is a retrospective of work by Russian director Aleksandr Sokurov. His feature Russian Ark, told in one continuous shot, won the Visions award at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival.

The New Montreal FilmFest runs Sept. 18-25.

Rebel slams into second year

Toronto’s Rebelfest Film Festival is positioning itself as the Canadian Slamdance. While Slamdance runs out of Park City, UT, each January, around the same time as Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival, Rebelfest, in its second year, will once again run ahead of TIFF, whetting film lovers’ appetites while they sample some alternative independent cinema.

Festival director Grace Kosaka says the Slamdance/Rebelfest comparisons are apt. ‘The reason for starting it is similar to Slamdance, in that we wanted to give important new artists a voice,’ she says.

This year’s Rebelfest kicks off with the Quebec feature La Planque from Alexandre Chartrand, made for $5,000. Kosaka says it demonstrates creativity and artistic ability triumphing over budgetary constraints. It will also be the film’s first English-language screening.

Other features unspooling include Michael Parness’ Max and Grace, Tim McLaughlin’s Hidden, Zhenya Kiperman’s I Will Avenge You Iago and Philip Zlotorynski’s My Big Fat Independent Movie, which will close the fest. Each feature will be coupled with short films and/or a music video.

After putting the entire first edition of the festival together in one month, Kosaka says Rebelfest organizers received nearly 800 entries for its second go-round, twice as many as last year. From those, 16 features, 16 music videos and about 25 short films made the cut. Rebelfest 2005 runs Sept. 7-11.

Whistler awards

The 2005 Whistler Film Festival is offering a new film honor for its fifth edition, the best Mountain Culture Film Award.

The non-cash prize will go to the best film with a mountain theme, be it about mountain people, experiences, legends, sports, etc. This will be added to the fest’s regular nods, including the $10,000 Borsos Award for best new Canadian feature, the CBC Newsworld best documentary prize, with a $5,000 purse, and the $500 best short film award, as well as a non-cash people’s choice award for best feature, sponsored by American Express.

The deadline for feature submissions is Sept. 23. Info can be found at www.whistlerfilmfestival.com. The fest runs Dec. 1-4 in Whistler, BC.

The lineup lineup

Festival season kicked off in Montreal Aug. 26 with the World Film Festival, just as other Canadian fests were set to announce their 2005 programs.

The 25th Atlantic Film Festival in Halifax unveils its film sked on Aug. 30. Thom Fitzgerald’s drama 3 Needles has already been announced as the opener of the festival, running Sep. 15-24.

Cinefest in Sudbury, ON, also reveals its film lineup on Aug. 30, with Deepa Mehta’s Water already in place for opening night. This is the first year executive director Jason Beaudry will be at the fest’s helm. He replaced 10-year ED Tammy Frick in January. Cinefest runs Sept. 17-25.

The Vancouver International Film Festival will announce its full lineup on Sept. 7. VIFF runs Sept. 29 to Oct. 14.