The Toronto InternationalFilm Festival has announced 25 North American premieres for its 31stouting this September, a line-up described as the best picks from the 2005-2006 internationalfestival calendar.

The selection includesCannes highlights such as Ken Loach's Palme d'Or winner The Wind That ShakesThe Barley, Grand Prize winner BrunoDumont's Flandres, AlejandroGonzalez Inarritu's Best Director winner Babel and Corneliu Porumboiu's Camera d'Or winner 12:08East Of Bucharest.

"Our primary allegianceat the festival is to our loyal audiences," said TIFF co-director NoahCowan in a statement. "To that end, we select the very best films fromkey, primarily European, festivals which run before our own. We bring thesefilms back to our continent for a 'second unveiling.' They are films thathave moved us, by way of their beauty, originality and overall cinematicachievement."

The low-key nature of theannouncement - in past years such titles would have warranted a pressconference -- suggests TIFF is preparing a war chest of world premieres. Aspreviously announced, the festival opens September 7 with the world premiere ofZacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn's The Journals Of Knud Rasmussen.

North American premieres atToronto
12:08 East Of Bucharest dir. Corneliu Porumboiu (Romania) CWC*
Babel dir. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Mexico) Special Presentation
Bamako dir. Abderrahmane Sissako (France/Mali/US) Visions
Big Bang Love, Juvenile A dir. Takeshi Miike (Japan) Visions
Bliss dir. Sheng Zhimin (China) Discovery
The Bothersome Man dir. Jens Lien (Norway) CWC
The Caiman dir. Nanni Moretti (Italy) Masters
Cronica De Una Fuga dir. Adrian Caetano (Argentina)
Flandres dir. Bruno Dumont (France) Visions
Invisible Waves dir. Pen-ek Ratanaruang (Thailand/Netherlands/HongKong) CWC
Jindabyne dir. Ray Lawrence (Australia) CWC
Lights In The Dusk dir. Aki Kaurismaki (Finland/Germany/France) Masters
Red Road dir. Andrea Arnold (UK) CWC
Reprise dir. Joachim Trier (Norway) Discovery
Retrieval dir Slawomir Fabicki (Poland) CWC
Shortbus dir. John Cameron Mitchell (US) CWC
Summer '04 dir. Stefan Krohme (Germany) CWC
Summer Palace dir. Lou Ye (China/France) CWC
Taxidermia dir. Gyorgy Palfi (Hungary/Austria/France) Visions
Ten Canoes dir. Rolf de Heer (Australia) Visions
These Girls dir. Tahani Rached (Egypt) Real To Reel
Time dir. Kim Ki-duk (South Korea) Visions
To Get To Heaven First You Have To Die dir. Djamshed Usmonov(France/Germany/Switzerland/Russia) CWC
White Palms dir. Szabolcs Hajdu (Hungary) CWC
The Wind That Shakes The Barley dir. Ken Loach (Fr./Ireland/UK/Italy/Spain/Ger)Masters

* CWC represents the"Contemporary World Cinema" section