Special Presentations, only a small step down from the Galas and still with the red carpet, are Michael McGowan’s Still (a world premiere) with James Cromwell and Genevieve Bujold, based on true events and boasting a veteran cast; Sarah Polley’s Stories We Tell, where Polley is both filmmaker and detective as she investigates her own life and turns the camera on her family and their individual takes on a surprising reveal about her own life; and Brandon Cronenberg’s Antiviral, a twisted tale of celebrity obsession taken to unnatural extremes starring Sarah Gadon, Caleb Landry Jones and Malcolm McDowell. Antiviral is the debut feature from the son of David Cronenberg, which had its world premiere in Cannes.

The dissolution of the Canada First! program means there is on longer a specific program for Canadian films, apart from the short program, and features now can be found scattered throughout the various programs such as Discovery, Contemporary World Cinema, Vanguard and Masters. These include Jason Buxton’s Blackbird, Drljaca’s Krivina, Kate Mellville’s high school comedy Picture Day, Kazik Radwanski’s Tower, Peter Mettler’s The End of Time, Bruce Sweeney’s The Crimes of Mike Recket, Sudz Sutherland’s Home Again, Sean Garrity’s My Awkward Sexual Adventure, Jason Lapeyre and Robert Wilson’s I Declare War and Anita Doron’s The Lesser Blessed.

TIFF Docs program includes Rob Stewart’s Revolution, Barry Avrich’s Show Stopper: The Theatrical Life of Garth Drabinsky, Jamie Kastner’s The Secret Disco Revolution and Simon Ennis’s Lunarcy! TIFF 2012 Rising Stars, the second year of a program highlighting four young Canadian actors on the brink of international stardom, are Charlie Carrick, Connor Jessup, Tatiana Maslany and Charlotte Sullivan. And last but certainly not least, London, Ontario’s twin heartthrobs – the red-hot Ryan Gosling and the busy and beauteous Rachel McAdams – will be in Toronto to do the red carpet thing for Derek Cianfrance’s The Place beyond the Pines (Gosling) and Brian De Palma’s Passion (McAdams). TIFF gets underway on September 6.