TIFF 2010: Canadian Content from Villeneuve, McDonald, Dolan, Bélanger, Tierney and Dowse!

The Toronto Int Film Festival have added tons of Canadian content sprawling across several sections and this year’s Midnight Madness opener will be a rowdy one in Michael Dowse’s Fubar II. Among the notable world premieres we have Jonathan Sobol’s A Beginners Guide to Endings grabing a Gala screening and in the Special Presentations we’ll have a green carpet premiere for Sturla Gunnarsson’s Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie – she follows the 75 year-old environmentalist during his time outs, and Jacob Tierney will make it a back to back years of preeming at TIFF, after The Trotsky he’ll show off Good Neighbours which stars Scott Speedman, Emily Hampshire and Jay Baruchel.

Other world preems come from Carl Bessai, Bruce McDonald, Robin Aubert, Ingrid Veninger and Terry Miles, while French Canada is well-repped by the likes of films that have been presented elsewhere: Denis Villeneuve’s Incendies (Venice), Xavier Dolan’s Les Amours Imaginaires (Cannes), Denis Côté’s Curling (Locarno FF), Catherine Martin’s Trois temps après la mort d’Anna (Karlovy Vary FF) and Louis Bélanger’s Route 132 (Montreal FF). See the complete press release after the jump:

Denis Villeneuve’s Incendies

Xavier Dolan’s Les Amours Imaginaires

Michael Dowse’s Fubar 2

GALAS

A Beginners Guide to Endings Jonathan Sobol, Canada World Premiere
Raucous, charming and very funny, Jonathan Sobol’s comedy A Beginners Guide to Endings follows three sons as they deal with their
gambler father’s somewhat complicated legacy. Featuring the legendary Harvey Keitel, the film also stars Scott Caan, Paolo Costanzo,
Wendy Crewson, Tricia Helfer, Jason Jones, and J.K. Simmons.

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS

Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie Sturla Gunnarsson, Canada World Premiere
At 75 years old, David Suzuki shows no signs of slowing down. In this captivating documentary portrait, the passionate
environmentalist’s legacy lecture is entwined with candid interviews in which he reflects on his life and shares deeply personal stories,
revealing a side previously unseen.

Good Neighbours Jacob Tierney, Canada World Premiere
Director Jacob Tierney (The Trotsky) returns with an innovative and unsettling thriller about some very strange people living in the
same apartment building in Montreal’s Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighbourhood. The film stars Scott Speedman, Emily Hampshire and
Jay Baruchel.

Incendies Denis Villeneuve, Canada North American Premiere
After their mother Nawal’s death, twins Simon and Jeanne embark on a journey to the Middle East that shines a disturbing light on their
mother’s past and culminates in a shocking revelation. Based on the acclaimed play by Wajdi Mouawad and directed by Genie and
Jutra award-winner Denis Villeneuve (Polytechnique).

Les amours imaginaires (Heartbeats) Xavier Dolan, Canada English Canadian Premiere
Wunderkind filmmaker Xavier Dolan returns with his second feature – a sophisticated comedy about close friends, Francis and Marie,
who pursue their mutual obsession with a young man. As they face off in competition, cracks in their friendship begin to appear with
both comic and tragic results.

Repeaters Carl Bessai, Canada World Premiere
Veteran director Carl Bessai returns with a tense thriller that follows three young addicts in a rehabilitation centre. Each day they live
the same events over and over – a situation each responds to in radically different ways.

Trigger Bruce McDonald, Canada World Premiere
Molly Parker and the late Tracy Wright form a highly dysfunctional yet endearing rock duo reuniting a decade after their band called it
quits. Directed by Bruce McDonald (Pontypool, The Tracey Fragments, Hard Core Logo, Highway 61), and written by Daniel MacIvor,
the film features Sarah Polley, Don McKellar and Callum Keith Rennie.

CONTEMPORARY WORLD CINEMA

À l’origine d’un cri Robin Aubert, Canada World Premiere
Three generations of men from the same family drunkenly careen across the Québécois countryside in an emotionally powerful journey
through the past from one of Québec’s most intriguing young filmmakers.

MODRA Ingrid Veninger, Canada World Premiere
In this authentic portrait of teenaged self-discovery, recently-dumped seventeen-year-old Lina and free spirit Leco travel to visit Lina’s
extended family in the quirky town of Modra, Slovakia.

A Night for Dying Tigers Terry Miles, Canada World Premiere
The night before Jack goes to prison for five years, his family gets together at their ancestral home for a farewell dinner. What begins
as a civil, if not joyful, reunion quickly devolves into a morally questionable whirlwind of regret, reversals, and revelations. The film stars
Jennifer Beals, Gil Bellows, Kathleen Roberston, Lauren Lee Smith, Tygh Runyon and John Pyper-Ferguson.

Route 132 Louis Bélanger, Canada English Canadian Premiere
A powerful drama directed by acclaimed veteran Louis Bélanger, Route 132 focuses on a man who loses a loved one and embarks on
a journey in an attempt to rediscover his roots and come to terms with his grief.

Small Town Murder Songs Ed Gass-Donnelly, Canada World Premiere
Ed Gass-Donnelly’s (This Beautiful City) Small Town Murder Songs mixes sexuality, religion and tradition in a Greek tragedy about
repression and mistrust. The film stars Peter Stormare, Jill Hennessy, Aaron Poole and Martha Plimpton.

MIDNIGHT MADNESS

Midnight Madness Opening Night
Fubar II Michael Dowse, Canada World Premiere
In the sequel to the 2002 cult comedy Fubar, hoser headbangers Terry and Dean are back and hit the road to find wealth, happiness
and more beer in the oil fields of Alberta. Special appearance by Tron.

REAL TO REEL

How to Start Your Own Country Jody Shapiro, Canada World Premiere
Shapiro’s documentary about micro-nations, tiny countries seldom recognized by the outside world, mixes comedy and compassion
with a serious analysis of the concept of statehood and citizenship.

The Man of a Thousand Songs William D. MacGillivray, Canada World Premiere
Veteran East Coast filmmaker William MacGillivray returns to the Festival with this emotional, intimate and tender documentary about
the life of fabled Atlantic songwriter Ron Hynes.

VISIONS

Curling Denis Côté, Canada North American Premiere
Set in a village in Quebec, Denis Côté’s Curling follows inveterate loner Jean-François, a single father, and his isolated 12-year-old
daughter Julyvonne. Between his unremarkable jobs, Jean-François devotes an awkward energy to Julyvonne until some unexpected
events jeopardize the fragile balance of their relationship.

Trois temps après la mort d’Anna Catherine Martin, Canada English Canadian Premiere
After vibrant young violinist Anna dies, her mother Françoise leaves Montreal and takes refuge at the country home of her maternal
ancestors in Kamouraska. She has given up on life, but an old friend labours to revive her desire to live.

CANADIAN OPEN VAULT
A Married Couple Allan King, Canada
A restruck and restored version of master filmmaker Allan King’s classic cinema-verité film, one of the most influential and celebrated
Canadian films ever made, A Married Couple records the collapse of a middle class couple’s marriage. The film is being restruck in
conjunction with Zoe Druick’s monograph on the film, co-published by the University of Toronto Press and TIFF.