The SAG, Golden Globes, Baftas and DGA award shows, move over.

The Whistler Film Festival is bidding to join the spotlight that showcases front runners and favorites for the Academy Awards by scheduling screenings for Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners for Warner Bros., Jean-Marc Vallée’s Dallas Buyers Club for Focus Features, and Louise Archambault’s Gabrielle, Canada’s contender in the best foreign language Oscar competition.

Villeneuve and Vallée’s latest efforts will be joined in Whistler by Atom Egoyan’s The Devil’s Knot as the festival gives a nod to Canadian directors thriving stateside as guns-for-hire for U.S. studios.

Whistler director of programming Paul Gratton booked in all 84 films from 14 countries, selected from over 700 submissions.

Among the 42 features are world premieres for Michelle Ouellet’s Afterparty, Teach Grant’s Down Here, Allan Harmon’s If I Had Wings, and Sturla Gunnarsson’s Ice Soldiers, the Dominic Purcell and Adam Beach-starrer that was shot in Sudbury, Ontario.

There’s also world bows for Carl Bessai’s No Clue, which stars and was written by Brent Butt, and Pat Kiely’s Three Night Stand, a dramedy that stars Sam Huntington and Meaghan Rath.

Whistler also booked Canadian premieres for Mitchell Kezin’s music documentary Jingle Bell Rock!, and Craig Goodwill’s Patch Town, the feature adaptation of the original short film of the same name.

Also Whistler-bound are a host of First Nations-themed titles, including the Benicio Del Toro-starring Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian, directed by Arnaud Desplechin, Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu’s Uvanga, and Empire of Dirt, by Peter Stebbings.

“Overall, our 2013 movie mix is the most exciting collection of films to date and I can’t wait to see how audiences respond to them,” said Gratton in a statement Monday.

The Whistler Film Festival, which already announced it will open with the western Canadian premiere of Jason Priestley’s Cas & Dylan, is set to run from Dec. 4 to 8, 2013.