HALIFAX — Taking a page out of Cannes, the 28th Atlantic Film Festival, running Sept. 11-20, has chosen as its opening gala Fernando Meirelles’ adaptation of the José Saramago novel Blindness, a Canada/Brazil/Japan copro that will highlight this year’s focus on the film industries of Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.

Organizers announced this year’s full lineup on Wednesday.

In addition to the popular annual Strategic Partners international coproduction conference, the Halifax-based festival will again feature Music & Image, its partner program with the East Coast Music Association, in which development sessions and panels will help bring musicians and filmmakers together. The keynote speaker will be legendary Sire Records cofounder and music impresario Seymour Stein, who signed the likes of Madonna and The Ramones.

The festival will continue to highlight new films from Atlantic Canada, including the gala presentation of Michael Melski’s Growing Op, a coming-of-age pot comedy shot in New Brunswick and starring Steven Yaffee, Rachel Blanchard and Rosanna Arquette.

‘We’re also excited about Down to the Dirt,’ says festival director Lia Rinaldo. Dirt is a first feature from Newfoundland’s Justin Simms that adapts the Joel Hynes novel, with the author starring in the film along with Hugh Dillon and Sherry White. It was the only Atlantic feature to get into the Toronto International Film Festival this year.

‘It’s a work worth celebrating — an incredible film, very gritty,’ says Rinaldo. ‘It’s really seen an evolution. It was a novel then a stage play and a screenplay, and it really works on screen.’

Though it hasn’t necessarily been the mandate, the festival has always tried to open with a production made in Atlantic Canada. This year, with Blindness (involving Toronto producer Niv Fichman) taking that slot, organizers decided to close with an Atlantic film instead: Summerhood, by Jacob Medjuck.

The director attended Camp Kadimah, a Jewish summer camp, when he was a child, and those summers inspired the script. Medjuck was then fortunate enough to be able to film on location at Camp Kadimah. John Cusack narrates.

‘[Medjuck] just started traveling the festival circuit in the U.S. and has been picking up audience awards,’ says Rinaldo. ‘We’re basically the Canadian premiere. We’ve worked really hard together to make it a special evening for the closing.’

The festival is scheduling the film for 9 p.m. on the Saturday to respect members of the Halifax Jewish community who would be observing the Sabbath until sundown. ‘Recognizing that, we had to schedule accordingly,’ says Rinaldo.

Atom Egoyan’s Adoration is the Telefilm Gala, while the Canadian Gala is Michael McGowan’s road movie One Week, starring Joshua Jackson and Liane Balaban along with cameos from noted Canadian musicians Gord Downie, Emm Gryner and hometown hero Joel Plaskett. Patti Smith: Dream of Life is the Inspired Music Gala. Also screening is Randall Cole’s Real Time, starring Jay Baruchel, and the animated international copro documentary Waltz with Bashir.

At the Inspired Doc program, the festival is screening Of All the Things, a documentary by Jody Lambert about his father, acclaimed songwriter Dennis Lambert, who found a career revival in the Philippines. Father and son will be in attendance.

And once again, the number of films this year tops previous years’ totals, with 254 films over the 10 days, including features and shorts.

‘It’s a very diverse, large program we’ve pulled together here,’ says Rinaldo. ‘A big part of that was that we expanded our programming team this year to eight people — brought in some new faces that charged up the programming room.’

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