Canadian film festival season is officially in high gear from coast to coast. Montreal’s World Film Festival is already underway, while the Atlantic and Vancouver events are ramping up for their kickoffs Sept. 17 and 23, respectively. But it is the 29th Toronto International Film Festival (Sept. 9-18) that commands the most attention from the local film community and abroad.

THE Canadian contingent at the 29th Toronto International Film Festival is top-heavy with first films, while works by veteran Canuck directors will be sprinkled throughout the various international programs for the first time in 20 years. On the heels of laying its Perspective Canada program to rest, TIFF announced the lion’s share of Canadian films on its schedule at a packed press conference Aug. 3.

Canadians look to figure prominently at the 56th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, with about 50 cited as the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced this year’s nominees on July 15 in Hollywood.

Summer’s here and the time is right for nights at the local multiplex. Of course, the season is invariably inundated with blockbuster Hollywood fare, and this summer is no exception, although Canadian talent and technology is more visible than ever in 2004’s crop.

The digital artists at Hybride, located outside of Montreal, have been tapped for FX and animation on the ambitious Robert Rodriguez film Sin City. The dark thriller is based on a series of graphic novels by acclaimed artist Frank Miller (Daredevil, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns), who has collaborated with Rodriguez on the screen adaptation.

Launched a decade ago with a deal from U.S. cabler Showtime Networks, Dufferin Gate Productions rode the wave of Hollywood MOW shoots to become Canada’s biggest service provider. It subsequently saw the MOW bubble burst, yet lived to tell the tale. Today, the Toronto prodco marches on – more healthy than ever, according to founder and president Patrick Whitley – but in a radically reimagined form.

Today Patrick Whitley lords over two successful production companies and a couple of studios, which is all a far cry from cutting his teeth at CFTO, CTV’s Toronto affiliate, as a unit manager for six years starting in 1970.

Unlike many of her cohorts, Cinemaginaire producer Denise Robert actually remembers all the Genies and Gemeaux parties she’s attended.