Close to 200 Atlantic, Canadian and international titles are programmed for the 16th annual Atlantic Film Festival and executive director Robin Johnston hopes to meet, or even beat, the success of last year’s event. Attendance for the 1995 festival was up 36%, private sponsorship was up 76%, and the event turned a profit for the first time in its history.

David Wellington will be on hand as his film Long Day’s Journey Into Night opens the festival on Sept. 20 in Halifax. The world premiere of the pilot episode of Salter Street’s copro Lexx: The Dark Zone Stories will close the aff with a gala on Sept. 28.

In between, the festival offers a mix of film and television for children and adults from Canada and abroad.

The festival’s Celtic and Nordic Perspective program features films from the North Atlantic Rim, including Cold Fever from Fridrik Thor Fridriksson and Breaking the Wave from Lars Von Trier (Europa).

Highlights of the Atlantic Focus program include Gullage’s, a cbc series coproduction with Newfoundland’s Picture Plant Productions about a beleaguered St. John’s cab stand, and the feature Sweet Angel Mine, a copro from Halifax’s Imagex. Director Anna Benson Gyles is expected to be on hand for the screening of Swann, a Canada/u.k. feature copro based on the novel by Carol Shields.

ScreenScene: Film and Television for Young People, which Johnston calls ‘a festival within a festival,’ is a competitive festival that includes family matinees, a youth jury and hands-on animation workshops. Norstar’s Salt Water Moose starring Timothy Dalton and Lolita Davidovitch will screen.

The fest will also launch a late-night program this year called Instead of Sleeping. The series will open with the world premiere of Producers Network Associates’ Carver’s Gate, a sci-fi/action flick starring Asian super-celeb Michael Pare.

Since its inception in Newfoundland in 1980, the festival has had a mandate to ‘cultivate and promote’ the film and video culture of Atlantic Canada, but this year’s Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation Industry Series recognizes the importance of production as a viable business.

Across The Pond: North Atlantic Partnerships will explore coproduction opportunities with Nordic and Celtic countries, areas with which Atlantic Canada has long had close connections. ‘There’s something about people who live on the ocean,’ says Johnston, ‘they have similar sensibilities.’

Moderated by Anne Medina, the full-day workshop will be hosted by Robert Morrice, gm, media and entertainment for Royal Bank; Ralph Holt, director of Telefilm Canada’s Atlantic Region; Andrew Cochran of Andrew Cochran Associates; Pat Ferns, director of the Banff Television Festival; Michael Donovan of Salter Street; and Bryan Gliserman, senior vp of Cineplex Odeon Films Canada.

Guests include Andrea Calderwood, head of drama for BBC Scotland; Siobhan O’Donoghue, chief exec of MEDIA Desk Ireland; Peter Hald, film commissioner for the Swedish Film Institute; Per Nielson, children’s film advisor for the Danish Film Institute; Jim Stark, an independent writer/producer from New York; and Thorsteinn Jonsson, independent director and former director of the Icelandic Film Fund.

The Big Launch: Stories and Strategies for Creating a TV Drama Series, hosted by Ralph Holt, will dig into scripting, financing strategies, audience targeting and the importance of international sales.

Part one, Stories Straight Up, features Mickey Rogers (Madison), Barbara Samuels or Wayne Grigsby (North of 60, Black Harbour), and Bill MacGillivray (Gullage’s).

Part two, Network Strategies for TV Drama Series, includes Loren Mawhinney, vp Canadian production for CanWest Global; Phyllis Platt, executive director arts and entertainment for cbc; Andrea Calderwood from BBC Scotland; and a yet-to-be-confirmed exec from a u.s. network.

Other sessions on the slate include You’re Hired: The Art of Getting Work in the Film Industry, Scripts Out Loud (professional readings from the four scripts chosen from the festival’s script development workshop), Dialogue With Directors, New Media and the Documentary, and How To Score in Atlantic Canada (coproduced with the East Coast Music Association).

Also on tap, The Special Effects Revolution (attended by CORE Digital, Northwest Imaging and FX and pixelMotion Images), a demo from avid and Networx called Going Non-Linear, and Gearing Up For The Casting Call.