The Canadian contingent at the 29th Toronto International Film Festival is top-heavy with first films, while works by veteran Canuck directors will be sprinkled throughout the various international programs for the first time in 20 years. On the heels of laying its Perspective Canada program to rest, TIFF announced the lion’s share of Canadian films on its schedule at a packed press conference Aug. 3.

The latest announcement brings the overall number of Canadian films or copros programmed at TIFF 2004 to 74, including 38 short films in the new Short Cuts Canada sidebar. (TIFF 2003 had 80 Canadian productions or copros, including the same number of shorts.) Steve Gravestock, TIFF associate director, Canadian special projects, explained that this year saw a significant rise in Canuck feature submissions over last year (200 from 158), likely an indication of the do-it-yourself-on-digital approach gaining momentum with filmmakers.

Saint Ralph, an Amaze Film + Television and Alliance Atlantis coproduction written and directed by Michael McGowan, opens the new Canada First! program, which showcases movies from first-time Canadian feature directors, or from those making their first appearance at TIFF. (McGowan previously wrote and directed the 1998 feature My Dog Vincent.) The film, being released through Odeon Films and Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm, tells the story of a young boy, played by Adam Butcher, who dreams of running the 1954 Boston Marathon in the hopes it will somehow cure his sick mother. It also stars Campbell Scott, Gordon Pinsent and Jennifer Tilly.

‘It’s a real crowd-pleasing film,’ says Amaze producer Mike Souther, who approves of TIFF’s Canuck programming changes. ‘Typically Canadians were known for their art cinema. We now have a very broad range of films, and what the film festival has done by opening up Perspective Canada and putting films in other categories has allowed us to celebrate that blossoming of Canadian [film.]’

Another film with popularity potential is Childstar, the sophomore feature directed by Don McKellar, who also cowrote and stars. The comedy, costarring Jennifer Jason Leigh and youngster Mark Rendall, tells the story of a Hollywood brat who goes AWOL while shooting in Canada, and the frustrated filmmaker-turned-driver enlisted to find him. The film, getting the special presentation treatment, is produced by Toronto’s Rhombus Media, which also coproduced Olivier Assayas’ drama Clean with the U.K. and France. The drama, about a widow who is released from prison and sets off to regain custody of her son in Paris, stars Cannes award-winner Maggie Cheung, Nick Nolte and McKellar, and has been slated as a gala presentation.

So far, the fest has slotted 10 films into Canada First! World premieres include Toronto-based Chris Abraham’s I, Claudia, based on the play by Kristen Thomson and starring Thomson; the comedic biopic It’s All Gone Peter Tong by Montreal’s Michael Dowse, who scored a cult hit with 2002’s Fubar; and Phil the Alien, described as ‘a comic odyssey told through the bloodshot eyes of an alcoholic alien,’ from Rob Stefaniuk, who has worn several hats on the Toronto production scene. Meanwhile, Montrealer Gary Yates’ grifter tale Seven Times Lucky, which took five years to go to camera, also made the cut.

TIFF programmer Stacey Donen says the timing for the launch of Canada First! could hardly be better. ‘This year is really a strong year for first films,’ he says. ‘There are a lot of new filmmakers, a lot of under-the-radar films, films without distribution. It’s a really appropriate year to have Canada First! to celebrate these new films.’

The Contemporary World Cinema program features several Canuck world premieres, including the futuristic The Limb Salesman by Anais Granofsky (On Their Knees). Siblings is a sort of Menendez brothers story from the Canadian Film Centre Feature Film Project, directed by David Weaver (Century Hotel) and starring Nicholas Campbell and Sonja Smits. Daniel McIvor’s Wilby Wonderful, distributed by Mongrel Media, is an East Coast ensemble piece with a cast including Jim Allodi, Callum Keith Rennie, Paul Gross and Sandra Oh.

The Visions sidebar, showcasing films using innovative production or storytelling techniques, includes four Canadian features making their world premieres, two by well-known directors. Bruce McDonald returns to TIFF with The Love Crimes of Gillian Guess, his take on the tawdry headline story of a B.C. woman sitting on a jury who became romantically involved with the accused. Shot as a Force Four Productions MOW, the project’s screening at TIFF represents a step back into the movie scene for McDonald, lately a busy TV director. His last film, Picture Claire, got weak reviews at TIFF 2001 and never got a Canadian theatrical release.

Meanwhile, Jerry Ciccoritti, Canada’s MOW king, presents the incestuous tale Blood, starring Emily Hampshire and Jacob Tierney. The director is happy with where his film is programmed.

‘[The festival] is really meant to help our films get out there, and when you’re in an area that doesn’t really invite people to come and see it, then you’re not really helping Canadian cinema,’ Ciccoritti says. ‘[Perspective Canada] served its purpose. We’re eating at the adult table now. It helps to change the Canadian public’s perception of our movies. We’re beyond the ghetto – we’re up there with everybody else.’

TIFF 2004 unspools Sept. 9 to 18.

-With files from Sean Davidson