Newcomers break into best 2007 Canadian films list

Films by four emerging directors have made the cut for the Toronto International Film Festival Group's 2007 tally of the best Canadian movies, joining the latest from some of the country's best-known directors.

The festival group revealed its annual list at a Toronto industry event Tuesday evening.The films are allfeatures that screened at a major Canadian film festival or were released theatrically in 2007.

Alongside familiar names like David Cronenberg and Denys Arcand are a quartet of filmmakers who made their feature-length-film debuts this year:

• Amal — Richie Mehta's portrait of contemporary India, told through the tale of a selfless New Delhi rickshaw driver.
• Continental, Un film sans fusil — Stéphane Lafleur explores the search for human connectionsin a community dealing with a businessman's disappearance.
• Young People F---ing — A cheeky comedy that weaves together five different tales of relationship struggles, helmed by TV producer, director and writer Martin Gero.
• Up the Yangtze — Yung Chang's stunningly shot documentary about the effects of China's massive Three Gorges Dam, as seen through the eyes of a peasant girl forced out of her home.

Along with Cronenberg's critically lauded Eastern Promises and L'Âge des Ténèbres, the final film in Quebec superstar Arcand's trilogythat started withThe Decline of the American Empire and The Barbarian Invasions, the list also includes:

• Fugitive Pieces, directed by Jeremy Podeswa.
• My Winnipeg, directed by Guy Maddin.
• A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman, directed by Peter Raymont.
• The Tracey Fragments, directed by Bruce McDonald.

For the first time, the group also named a list of top 10 Canadian short films. The inaugural picks are:

• Code 13, directed by Mathieu L. Denis.
• The Colony, directed by Jeff Barnaby.
• Dust Bowl Ha! Ha!, directed by Sébastien Pilote.
• Farmer's Requiem, directed by Ramses Madina.
• Les Grands, directed by Chloé Leriche.
• I Have Seen the Future, directed by Cam Christiansen.
• I Met the Walrus, directed by Josh Raskin.
• Madame Tutli-Putli, directed by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski.
• Pool, directed by Chris Chong Chan Fui.
• Terminus, directed by Trevor Cawood.

Both top 10 lists were selected by national panels made up of filmmakers, journalists, programmers and representatives from the movie industry.

The TIFF group will hold screenings of its Top 10 of 2007 picks in Toronto in late January and early February. Some of the films will subsequently be screened in Ottawa, Vancouver and other cities as part of the group's travelling Film Circuit initiative.