The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) kicks off on 10 September 2009. In total 33 British films will screen, including short films and co-productions. Unusually, and to the delight of the UK film industry, the opening and closing films at this prestigious event are British.

Both films deal with the early lives of famous Britons. The opening night gala presentation is the world premiere of Jon Amiel’s Creation, a biographical drama of Charles Darwin’s life; the festival's closing film is Young Victoria, directed by Jean Marc-Vallée, based on Queen Victoria’s life during the 1830’s.

For full details of each British film screening at the festival, click here to download a PDF of our brochure.

British Council input comes under our work to reach new audiences. The film team organises London preview screenings for a selection of key international film festivals. In June we hosted the visit of TIFF co-directors Piers Handling and Cameron Bailey. Creation was part of this screening programme, as were other selected titles, including Glorious 39, Dorian Gray, The Disappearance of Alice Creed and She, A Chinese.

Satwant Gill, British Council Head of Film says: ‘The Preview Screenings exert a democratic, level playing field whereby any new film (made by established production companies and first timers alike) can be presented to some of the most influential curators in the business.

‘TIFF has fast become the ‘festival of choice’ for film makers wanting to break into the North American, and subsequently world-wide, market place. For example, director Danny Boyle credits the TIFF premier of his film Slumdog Millionaire as roller-balling the phenomenal success of the film.

‘For our part, we consult as many film companies and regional screen agencies as possible to ensure we present as varied a ‘menu’ as possible; as we’re not a production house ourselves, festival selectors value our unbiased opinion. They also know that we will be able to identify and present work from debut or non-established film makers... and of course the ‘discovery’ of new talent is an A-list festival must.’

The British Council, as the UK representative member of the European Film Promotion, has also enabled many of the selected films to access Media Funds for sales support at the event. For more information see the EFP webpage on sales support.

The full list of British films screening is as follows:

Gala
Creation Jon Amiel (UK) Opening film
Dorian Gray Oliver Parker (UK)
The Damned United Tom Hooper (UK)
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Terry Gilliam (France/Canada/UK)
The Young Victoria Jean Marc-Vallée (UK) Closing film

Vanguard
Bunny and the Bull Paul King (UK)
Fish Tank Andrea Arnold (UK)
She, A Chinese Xiaolu Guo (UK/France/Germany)

Special Presentations
An Education Lone Scherfig (UK)
Bright Star Jane Campion (UK/Australia)
Cracks Jordan Scott (UK/Ireland)
Glorious 39 Stephen Poliakoff (UK)
Harry Brown Daniel Barber (UK)
London River Rachid Bouchareb (UK/France/Algeria)
Perrier’s Bounty Ian FitzGibbon (UK/Ireland)
The Boys Are Back Scott Hicks (UK/Australia)
Valhalla Rising Nicolas Winding Refn (Denmark/UK)

Discovery
Nora Alla Kovgan & David Hinton (UK/US/Mozambique)
The Disappearance of Alice Creed J. Blakeson (UK)
The Unloved Samantha Morton (UK)

Contemporary World Cinema
Jean Charles Henrique Goldman (UK/Brazil)
The Time That Remains Elia Suleiman (UK/Italy/Belgium/France)

Wavelengths
A Letter to Uncle Boonmee Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand/UK/Germany)
Pro Agri Nicky Hamlyn (UK)

Visions
Trash Humpers Harmony Korine (UK/USA)

Sprockets Family Zone
Turtle: The Incredible Journey dir Nick Stringer (UK/Austria/Germany)

Midnight Madness
Solomon Kane Michael J. Bassett (UK/Czech Republic)

Yonge and Dundas Square
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars D.A. Pennebaker (UK)

Reel To Reel
Once Upon A Time Proletarian Xiaolu Guo (China/UK/Germany)

Future Projections
Backstory Mark Lewis (UK/France/Canada)
Cinema Museum Mark Lewis (UK/France/Canada)
In A City Mark Lewis (UK/Canada/US)
Phantoms of Nabua Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand/UK/Germany)

Over ten days, the festival will screen 335 films from 64 countries, including 271 feature-length films, 72 per cent of which are world, international or North American premieres and 71 of which are feature directorial debuts.

For more information on the festival please see the Toronto International Film Festival website.