The made-in-Alberta movie The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford will open the eighth annual Calgary International Film Festival on Sept. 20.

‘We are absolutely thrilled,’ said CIFF executive director Jacqueline Dupuis, who made the announcement at a special press conference to announce the opening gala presentation. ‘This is a real coup for Calgary. This is a very prominent film that has so many connections to Alberta, and we worked very hard to get it here.’

The western, which stars Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck, shot in Alberta — which doubled for the American frontier circa 1881 — in the fall of 2005. The film used a variety of locations, including the snowcapped-peaks of Kananaskis, Fort Edmonton and Calgary’s Heritage Park. It is also shot scenes in Winnipeg’s heritage district.

Jesse James, which is written and directed by Andrew Dominik, makes its Canadian debut at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday. CIFF will be the second festival in Canada to present the film.

Other gala presentations announced for CIFF, which runs through to Sept. 30, include Academy Award winner Ang Lee’s Second World War espionage thriller Lust, Caution and Calgary filmmaker Robert Cuffley’s Walk All Over Me, the story of a small-town runaway (Leelee Sobieksi) who assumes the dominatrix identity of her roommate (Tricia Helfer) to pay the bills.

Written by Cuffley and Jason Long, Walk All Over Me is an Alberta/Manitoba coproduction from Calgary-based Chaos and Winnipeg’s Eagle Vision.

In total, CIFF will screen more than 250 dramatic and documentary films from around the world

Other Canadian highlights include Allan Moyle’s black comedy Weirdsville, starring Scott Speedman and Wes Bentley; Carl Bessai’s Normal, featuring Carrie-Anne Moss; Kari Skogland’s adaptation of The Stone Angel; Bruce McDonald’s adaptation of The Tracey Fragments; and Émile Gaudreault’s Surviving My Mother.

International films include Palm d’Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days from Romanian director Cristian Mungiu and The Edge of Heaven, a Germany/Turkey copro from director Fatih Akin that won the award for best screenplay at Cannes.

Also screening are Kenneth Branagh’s remake of the 1972 film Sleuth, starring Michael Caine and Jude Law; Paul Schrader’s The Walker, starring Woody Harrelson, Kristin Scott Thomas and Lauren Bacall; and Terry George’s Reservation Road, a psychological thriller starring Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Connelly and Mira Sorvino.