Canadian filmmaker Mike Goldbach laboured for six years to get his debut feature Daydream Nation (left) to launch the Canada First! sidebar at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival.

“This film came together and fell apart many times,” Goldbach recalled Tuesday as Toronto fest toppers Steve Gravestock and Cameron Bailey introduced the breakout Toronto director and his small-town dark comedy to a phalanx of TV cameras and local newspaper scribes.

He recalled securing lead actors Kat Dennings and Andie McDowall to come north to “tramp around Surrey, B.C.” for principal photography on Daydream Nation.

“It was not for the money or the weather,” he added.

But the resulting feature debut for Goldbach, which will receive a world premiere in Toronto, has captured the attention of festival programmers and, hopefully, a wider Canadian theatrical audience post-TIFF.

TIFF director Piers Handling said the class of 2010 offered an “exceptionally strong” lineup of Canadian films, including the latest work by Denis Villeneuve, Bruce McDonald, Xavier Dolan, Jacob Tierney, Louis Bélanger and William D. MacGillivray, Sturla Gunnarsson, Ingrid Veninger, and Carl Bessai.

Handling pointed to Rubba Nada last year capturing the best Canadian feature prize for Cairo Time at last year’s festival, and this week seeing her feature open in New York City to critical praise, as evidence of Canuck films thriving at TIFF and beyond.

“Seeing a film using the festival as a stepping stone is exactly what we’re about,” he said.

Other Canadian contenders unveiled Tuesday by TIFF organizers included a gala premiere for Jonathan Sobol’s A Beginners Guide to Endings, starring Harvey Keitel and Wendy Crewson, and world bows in special presentation slots for Sturla Gunnarson’s Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie, about the famed Canadian environmentalist, and Jacob Tierney’s Good Neighbours, a thriller set in Montreal’s Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighborhood that stars Scott Speedman, Emily Hampshire and Jay Baruchel.

Other TIFF world premieres: Carl Bessai’s Repeaters, Ingrid Veninger’s Modra, and Terry Miles’ A Night for Dying Tigers, which stars Jennifer Beals, Gil Bellows and Kathleen Roberston.

And Bruce McDonald’s Trigger, featuring Molly Parker and the late Tracy Wright as a highly dysfunctional rock duo reuniting after a decade out of the limelight, was tapped to be the first film to unspool at Bell Lightbox as it launched on September 12.

An emotional Trigger producer Jennifer Jonas recalled being overcome with tears when McDonald’s film became the “community choice” to open TIFF’s new year-round headquarters.

Toronto fest co-director Cameron Bailey praised Trigger as a worthy recipient of the honor, before inviting the Toronto film community assembled at the Royal York hotel on Tuesday to attend the premiere.

Then Cameron checked himself. “Well, you can’t all be there. It’s only 500 seats,” he said in reference to the Bell Lightbox venue.

Also getting a world premiere in Toronto is Small Town Murder Songs, the latest drama from Ed Gass-Donnelly, which stars Swedish actor Peter Stormare, Jill Hennessy and Aaron Poole.

Toronto also booked a number of high-profile Quebec films, including a North American bow for Denis Villeneuve’s Incendies, and Canadian debuts for Xavier Dolan’s Les amours imaginaires, Robin Aubert’s ¿ l’origine d’un cri, and Route132 by veteran Louis Belanger, a road move set to bow at the Montreal World Film Festival in competition.

The festival’s Canada First! program will also feature Katrin Bowen’s Amazon Falls, set in Hollywood, and High Cost of Living, a dark drama from filmmaker Deborah Chow that pairs Isabelle Blais and Zach Braff on screen.

There’s also a world bow for Ryan Redford’s Oliver Sherman, starring Donal Logue, Molly Parker and Garret Dillahunt, and North American debuts for Patrick Demers’ Jaloux and Daniel Cockburn’s You Are Here.

In all, Toronto has booked five Canadian films, including co-productions, into Roy Thomson Hall for red carpet treatment, including Barney’s Version,Casino Jack, The Bang Bang Club and Score: A Hockey Musical, the fest opener on September 9.

And there’s another 40 titles in the Short Cuts Canada sidebar. The shorties include Brandon Cronenberg’s The Camera and Christopher Merk, actor-turned-filmmaker Nadia Litz’ How To Rid Your Lover Of A Negative Emotion Caused By You! and Yesno, from film-critic-cum-filmmaker Brian Johnson.

TIFF organizers also Tuesday unveiled, The Canadian Pack, a new ticket package allowing cinema-goers to see five new Canadian films for $80.