Telefilm Canada invested C$11.3m in 22 features during fiscal 2009-10

“We had a strong year with 22 regional client film projects in production covering seven genres including five comedies,” director of project financing Michel Pradier said in a statement.

The funder’s mandate includes financing projects outside big city centres and it timed the news release to coincide with Toronto’s Canadian press conference on Tuesday [10], when it was announced that Jonathan Sobol’s low-budget feature A Beginner’s Guide To Endings – a comedy from Canada’s northern Nunavut Region co-produced with Ontario and starring Harvey Keitel – will receive a red-carpet Gala.

Daydream Nation directed by Mike Goldbach and starring Andie MacDowell is billed as a “provocative yet humorous romance” from northern British Columbia, and is scheduled to open Canadian sidebar Canada First!

It is no surprise that Canada’s largest distributor, eOne Films, has landed prime festival spots for both of these world premiers.

Another dramatic co-production from Nunavut and Ontario comes from debutant film-maker Ryan Redford with the suspense tale Oliver Sherman, about a war veteran played by Garret Dillahunt who searches for a soldier who saved his life. Mongrel Media distributes.

And while Toronto director Bruce McDonald is in the festival with Triggers, TFC noted that his highly anticipated sequel Hard Core Logo II was among the low-budget crop of 22, and counts as “Western” because of its producers, Foundation Features & Trilight Entertainment. Alliance Films distributes.