Edison And Leo 

Wednesday, August 27------While the Toronto International Film Festival is nothing if not international in scope, the Festival has also been mindful of its role of introducing Canadian film talents to the larger public and the worldwide industry that attends the annual festival bash. Continuing in its commitment to celebrate Canadian works, the Festival will present nine new films in the Canada First! program section.

Focusing on works from first-time Canadian directors as well as those presenting a feature film at the Festival for the first time, Canada First! will launch with Edison And Leo, Canada’s first stop-motion animated feature. The film, directed by British Columbia native Neil Burns, is a sumptuous fairytale-gone-wrong about quirky inventor George T. Edison (voiced by actor Powers Boothe) who endangers his family in a quest to create a viable electric light bulb.

Other films world premiering at the event include Control Alt Delete (Cameron Labine, British Columbia), a quirky romantic comedy set in 1999 about a computer geek who becomes more and more obsessed with internet porn; Cooper’s Camera (Warren P. Sonoda, Ontario), a wild and deranged comedy set in 1985 suburbia, that follows the disintegration of a truly dysfunctional at that most dysfunctional season of the year, Christmas;  Down to the Dirt (Justin Simms, Newfoundland), a stark and edgy chronicle of violence, drugs and sex that has as its "hero" a hard-drinking and hard-fighting rowdyman; and
Nurse. Fighter. Boy (Charles Officer, Ontario), a lyrical and heartfelt urban love story that follows an ailing nurse, her 12-year-old son and a solitary boxer past his prime.

Rounding out the Canadian roster are the films Only (Ingrid Veninger and Simon Reynolds, Ontario), a coming-of-age story about a 12-year-old boy who lives in a northern Ontario motel run by his parents; Real Time (Randall Cole, Ontario), a gritty thriller set in real time about a hit man, played by Randy Quaid,  who gives a compulsive gambler one hour to live; When Life Was Good (Terry Miles, British Columbia), the story of young twentysomething bohemians coping with life and love in Vancouver; and the sole Quebec entry, Before Tomorrow by Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Ivalu, a moving drama about a strong Inuit woman and her beloved grandson, who become trapped on a remote island as they face the ultimate challenge of survival.

Sandy Mandelberger, Toronto FF Dailies Editor