‘It’s a delicate balancing act,’ admits VIFF programmer Terry McEvoy of handpicking the 90 films from among the more than 600 submissions to Canadian Images.

‘It is a mix of a bit more avant-garde and some mainstream dramatic films; lighter and more harrowing documentaries; and a healthy sampling of films from across the country, including local films.’

The 2008 Canadian Images program effectively juggles these various mandates, with high-profile features from veteran directors representing the reaches of the country (including Atom Egoyan’s Adoration and Léa Pool’s Maman est chez le coiffeur) and a wide range of documentaries from acclaimed filmmakers (such as John Walker’s Passage and Barbara Willis Sweete’s The Young Romantic).

Plus there’s a healthy crop of films from new and established Vancouver filmmakers.

Films from B.C. directors are an important component of Canadian Images, says McEvoy.

‘The Vancouver audience has a soft spot for local features,’ he admits. ‘But while we are very open to Western features, they still have to meet the mark of quality.’

Most of the 21 feature-length dramas in Canadian Images have already debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival or other cities along the Canuck film fest circuit. However, Canadian Images is hosting one lone dramatic feature world premiere – Crime – and it just happens to be from a local filmmaker.

The film, shot in the Dogme 95 tradition for under $30,000, marks the directorial debut of Vancouver actor Tom Scholte (Dirty, Last Wedding).

The drama centers on the relationship between a volatile university hockey player and an emotionally fragile art student, and a waitress trying to sober up without much help from her unemployed pot-smoking musician boyfriend.

‘The storylines come together in a collision that has dire consequences for everyone involved,’ says Scholte, who wrote the scenes for the film, then improvised with his actors before completing the final script.

The cast of Crime includes Scholte, Frida Betrani (Prozac Nation), Evan Frayne (When Jesse Was Born) and Andrea Whitburn (Tell Me No Lies).

Other Vancouver dramatic films at the festival include Carl Bessai’s Mothers & Daughters, Neil Burns’ stop-motion animated Edison & Leo, Cameron Labine’s comedy Control Alt Delete, Terry Miles’ When Life Was Good and Carl Laudan’s first feature, Sheltered Life.

Sheltered Life was one of eight works chosen to screen (as a work-in-progress) at Telefilm’s Perspectives Canada showcase at Cannes this past year. The drama, produced by Laudan and Lori Lozinski and exec producer Andrew Koster, is set in a women’s shelter and based on screenwriter Katherine Schlemmer’s experiences working in a social services center in downtown Vancouver.

The ensemble cast of women includes Valerie Buhagiar (Highway 61), Natasha Greenblatt (CQ2) and Eve Harlow (The Guard).

‘Thirteen of the 16 actors in our cast are women,’ says Laudan. ‘I don’t know for sure, but we may have set a record.’

Also screening in Canadian Images is 45 RPM, directed by Saskatoon-based David Schultz (Jet Boy). This $3.2-million film from Alberta’s Nomadic Pictures and Saskatchewan’s Karma Films is a coming-of-age tale about two teenagers in a remote Saskatchewan town circa 1960 who happen to tune in to a New York radio station and enter a contest hosted by a DJ (Terry David Mulligan) to win tickets to the Big Apple.

‘It’s a period piece and a friendship story,’ says Schultz of the film, which premieres at the Calgary International Film Festival (Sept. 19-28). ‘I love morality tales. It’s about those really great best friends you have as a kid. It also has some Cold War themes and a dark side. I shot it like an old ’60s movie.

The cast includes Kim Coates (Smallville, Prison Break), Michael Madsen (Kill Bill) and Amanda Plummer (My Life Without Me). Toronto’s Don Carmody is the executive producer.

Canadian Images is also highlighting three films with Vancouver producers attached.

The program opens with Charles Martin Smith’s Stone of Destiny, a Canada/U.K. copro from Vancouver’s Infinity Features (Capote) and London-based The Mob Film Company (Scenes of a Sexual Nature). The adventure-comedy is based on Ian Hamilton’s true story of the unusual theft of a stone used for centuries in the coronation of Scotland’s monarchs.

Stone of Destiny was the closing-night gala at TIFF. Still, despite the big launch in Toronto, Infinity’s Rob Merilees, who won the $10,000 CFTPA Producers Award there, says the Vancouver festival figures prominently in the film’s marketing plans, especially in terms of building buzz.

‘It is a very strong festival on its own merit,’ he says of VIFF. ‘It isn’t a big market festival, but it is really all about the films. It is a filmgoer’s festival, so Vancouver is a great way to build word of mouth on a film. A lot of people go see the movies and then they tell two friends. That is really important for Canadian films.’

There’s also the added bonus of screening a film in your hometown, adds Merilees.

‘I hate to say it – but here’s the vanity – it’s great to have our friends and family come see the movie.’

Honored with a special presentation slot at VIFF is Edison & Leo, also from Infinity along with Vancouver’s Perfect Circle Productions. Canada’s first feature created in stop-motion animation, this fairytale-gone-wrong follows quirky inventor George T. Edison, who endangers his family in his quest to create an electric light bulb.

Edison and Leo premiered at TIFF as the opening-night gala in the Canada First! program, but producer Dean English at Perfect Circle says the Vancouver festival also fulfills an important function.

‘All the crew, except the animators, are from Vancouver and worked really hard on this film, so it is great they can come out and have a night of celebration,’ says English. ‘And while there isn’t a lot of market attendance at VIFF, it is a great festival to expose a film to an audience and see what kind of reaction you get.’

Also with a special presentation at VIFF is Kari Skogland’s Fifty Dead Men Walking, produced by Skogland, U.K.-based Future Film Group and Vancouver’s Brightlight Pictures. Inspired by the true story of Martin McGartland, who was recruited by the British Special Branch to work inside the IRA, the film stars Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe), Rose McGowan (Charmed) and Ben Kingsley (The Last Legion).

Overall, the 2008 Canadian Images lineup includes 21 dramatic features, 10 feature-length documentaries, two medium-length films and 57 shorts.

Canadian Images will debut five new documentaries, including three films from B.C. filmmakers: Frank Wolf’s Borealis, Mark Peranson’s Waiting for Sancho and Peter Campbell’s My Son the Pornographer.