Ten days, 328 movies, one drunken alien and one dead, lamented cat later, the Toronto International Film Festival called it a wrap on Sept. 18, declaring as a success a fest that saw both major changes to its programming of Canadian films, and the debut of its new codirector and crown prince, Noah Cowan.

Cowan, speaking a few days after the TIFF finale, was upbeat about its 2004 installment, pointing to the warm reviews and brisk business for Canadian films.

‘It’s always hard to quantify these things, but there will probably be more sales this year,’ he predicts. ‘Instead of people just looking at the first five movies in the [now mothballed] Perspective Canada program, now they’re treating them as international equals.’

For example, Saint Ralph and Phil the Alien, both locally shot, were major hits with critics and buyers. Ralph, a heart-warmer copro’d by Alliance Atlantis Communications and Amaze Film + Television, has sold, or is pending, in multiple territories, including France, Germany, the U.K., Italy and Japan. The pic opened TIFF’s new Canada First! program and Cowan says he’s very pleased that TIFF was able to give it a boost.

The success of Phil the Alien came as more of a surprise. The sci-fi comedy directed by Rob Stefaniuk and produced Black Walk follows the north Ontario adventures of a boozy extraterrestrial and his sidekick, a talking beaver. It was snapped up by Lions Gate just days into the fest.

‘We’d been high on the film for some time,’ says Brad Pelman, exec VP of sales and distribution, explaining that he and SVP John Bain saw a rough cut back in the winter. ‘When we got word that it had been confirmed for Toronto, that firmed up our decision to move on it.’

Lions Gate bought the rights for all of Canada and plans to release Phil late next summer. The distrib also picked up the Paul Haggis-directed Crash and is in talks for a few other genre titles, says Pelman.

He notes that the fest’s Midnight Madness program – which screens just a handful of way-out-there horror and sci-fi features – has grown into a major indicator of a pic’s worth. ‘Without a doubt… Midnight Madness is of tremendous commercial importance,’ says Pelman.

Other strong performers among critics and fest-goers were Istvan Szabo’s Being Julia, which played admirably on opening night despite repeated audio trouble, and the David Weaver-directed Siblings. Local director Chris Abraham and Sienna Films also drew cheers for their stage adaptation I, Claudia.

Toronto-based Thinkfilm, the distrib for Julia, also grabbed the North American rights to Sean Penn’s lauded The Assassination of Richard Nixon and will rush it to theaters, in search of Oscar nods, on Nov. 29. The company also got the continental rights for the doc Three of Hearts.

Thinkfilm president Jeff Sackman says the fest was ‘fabulous’ this year, but complained that some sellers expected unrealistically high prices for their films. ‘They hear that something sold for $8 billion and suddenly they all want $8 billion,’ he says, chuckling. ‘It’s legitimate to want it, but they can’t all get it.’

Odeon Films president Bryan Gliserman agrees the fest was ‘chock o’ block with good product’ this year, but notes that negotiations often take longer than expected. ‘We’re seeing fewer films that debut at Toronto with a big splash and are snapped up in 24 hours,’ he says, in part because films are increasingly likely to presell key territories just to finance production, leaving fewer choices when those films go to market. ‘Just as filmmaking is a collaboration, so now is distribution,’ says Gliserman.

Odeon had good luck, however, assisting sales of Saint Ralph and the DJ documentary It’s All Gone Pete Tong, which has a pending offer for the U.S. Ralph was also in L.A. recently, screening for the Hollywood studios in hope of a U.S. deal.

Business also seemed to slow down after Rosh Hashanah. The Jewish High Holiday landed partway through the fest this year, sending many execs home to their families. Cowan admits the timing was a challenge for organizers – the holiday usually lands at the very beginning of the fest – but brushes aside criticism that TIFF has become too front-loaded.

‘There was very intense activity through Friday [Sept. 17],’ he insists. ‘Of course there were a lot things going on in the opening weekend. There always have been.’

TIFF 2004 was also marked by a spat between programmers and animal rights activists over the controversial doc Casuistry: The Art of Killing a Cat, which recounts the torture and killing of a stray feline by two Toronto men. Before it screened, the selection of the film drew protests and a death threat against one TIFF programmer. ‘It’s ironic that the only news story [from this festival] was about people who wilfully don’t watch movies,’ says Cowan.

With files from Mark Dillon

-www.e.bell.ca/filmfest