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The competition between both the festivals has been open in last couple of years between Venice and Toronto. This year is no different to the plethora of titles that are yet to headline in Toronto. The Festival started with lauch of the 20 million dollar Canadian World War I epic Passchendaele

The pace for the festival will quicken with stars hitting the town for the annual festival. There are several premiers this year notably the Bur After Reading film, the Ed Harris directed picture Appaloosa and the Fox Searchlight film produced by Will Smith called The Secret Life of Bees.

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Another problem faced by the festival is the unofficial market for acquisition of titiles one that has been giving several misfires like the Hamlet 2 buy and the marked decline of the specialty Box Office.

But there have also been some highpoints like the buy of The Visitor by Overture and there will be some good buys this year with Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker and Broadway backstage documentary Every Little Step.

The weekend will feature some interesting premiers like Jonathan Demme’s Rachel Getting Married and Kevin Smith’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno.

There have also been some small pictures this year like the memoir documentary by Terence Davies called Of Time and City that has been getting some good reviews. And Regent Releasing took another North American on Serbis from prolific Filipino filmmaker Brillante Mendoza.

A comparably arty pic that drew a packed house Thursday for an afternoon screening was Clare Denis’ “35 Rhums,” which had preemed in Venice to great acclaim. The French-language pic from the director of “Beau Travail” is likely to go to a specialist in such fare such as Sony Classics or IFC.

One of the biggest screenings of the day was the Warner Bros Guy Ritchie film RocknRolla that has been garnering some good support in the last couple of weeks.

Another new trend witnessed this year was the spreading of the venues over a wider area of the city with organizers and party throwers preparing attendees for next years transformative arrival of the Bell Lightbox, which will shift many films and activities downtown from their current Bloor Street locus.

But the film festival was marred by some protests over tens of millions in arts funding cut planned by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Click the thumbnails to see the new hi resolution pictures.