Canadian Titles added TIFF'09: Gala, Special Presentation, Vanguard & More!

Today we are literally bombarded with announcements of new titles added to the 2009 line up of the Toronto International Film Festival, most of which are Canadian! It is always exciting to hear what is new in store for us on the Canadian front so let's have a look at the Gala and Special Presentations along with Contemporary World Cinema, Masters, Real to Reel, Sprockets and Vanguard selections.

I'm delighted to see that Atom Egoyan's Chloe is including in the Gala programme, along with Terry Gilliam's fantastical adventure The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus which has been getting lots of interest, it stars Johnny Depp, Heath Ledger, Jude Law, Colin Farrell, Christopher Plummer and Tom Waits. Real to Reel includes documentary Reel Injun from Neil Diamond, a documentary that sounds fascinating, taking to task the inaccurate presentation of native peoples in Hollywood films.

Special Presentations include Defendor, starring Woody Harrelson and a regular guy who thinks he's superhero and Xavier Dolan's directorial debut J'ai Tué Ma Mère. Denis Côté (Nos vies privées / Our Private Lives) returns to the festival with Carcasses in the Vanguard programme. Bernard Émond also returns to the festival with La Donation in the Masters programme, and after seeing his films beautiful and touching films La Neuvaine and Contre toute espérance in previous years, Masters programme seems like the perfect home for his latest work.

In the Contemporary World Cinema programme, vampire fans will be happy to hear Suck is included at the festival this year. It's a vampire comedy of the what will the band do? variation and features cameos from Alice Cooper, Moby, Iggy Pop, Carole Pope and Henry Rollins.

All of that and so much more, here is a list of the newly released Canadian titles:

Contemporary World Cinema

A Gun to the Head
Dir: Blaine Thurier
Canada

Cole
Dir: Carl Bessai
Cast: Richard de Klerk, Kandyse McClure
Canada

Excited
Dir: Bruce Sweeney
Canada

High Life
Dir: Gary Yates
Canada

Passenger Side
Dir: Matthew Bissonnette
Cast: Adam Scott, Joel Bissonnette
Canada

Suck
Dir: Robert Stefaniuk,
Canada

Gala

Chloe
Dir: Atom Egoyan
Cast: Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson, Amanda Seyfried
France/Canada

Cooking with Stella
Dir: Dilip Mehta
Cast: Lisa Ray, Don McKellar, Seema Biswas
Canada

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Dir: Terry Gilliam
Cast: Johnny Depp, Heath Ledger, Jude Law, Colin Farrell, Christopher Plummer, Tom Waits, Verne Troyer
United Kingdom/Canada

Masters

La Donation
Dir: Bernard Émond (Contre toute espérance)
Cast: Jacques Godin, Elise Guilbault
Canada

Real to Reel

Glenn Gould: The Inner Life
Dir: Peter Raymont and Michele Hozer
Canada

Petropolis: Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands
Dir: Peter Mettler
Canada

Reel Injun
Dir: Neil Diamond
Canada

Special Presentation

Cairo Time
Dir: Ruba Nadda
Cast: Patricia Clarkson, Alexander Siddig, Tom McCamus
Canada/Ireland

Defendor
Dir: Peter Stebbings
Cast: Woddy Harrelson, Kat Dennings, Elias Koteas, Sandra Oh, Lisa Ray
Canada

Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel
Dir: Brigitte Berman
Documentary on Hugh Hefner
Canada

J'ai Tué Ma Mère
Dir: Xavier Dolan
Cast: Xavier Dolan, Anne Dorval
Canada

The Trotsky
Dir: Jacob Tierney
Cast: Jay Baruchel, Saul Rubinek,
Canada

Sprockets Family Zone

A Shine of Rainbows
Dir: Vic Sarin
Canada/Ireland

Vanguard

Carcasses
Dir: Denis Côté (Nos vies privées / Our Private Lives)
Canada

Leslie, My Name Is Evil
Dir: Reginald Harkema
Canada

The Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 10 - 19, 2009 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.