AS THE CHILL OF AUTUMN sets in, why not hunker down and take in a few flicks? Many of the biggest and best of the country’s film festivals run in the fall. Here’s what’s coming to theatres near you.

Toronto International Film Festival
Curtain call: Sept. 4-13
Audience: Stars and their paparazzi
Plot: From its humble origins in 1976 as the “Festival of Festivals,” screening films previously viewed at other events, TIFF has grown to become one of the main venues for world premieres.
www.tiff08.ca

Atlantic Film Festival
Curtain call: Sept. 11-20
Audience: Maritime movie mavens
Plot: Halifax is home to the 28th annual Atlantic Film Festival. Described as “intimate enough to be Canada’s kitchen party festival,” it draws local and international entries.
www.atlanticfilm.com

Vancouver International Film Festival
Curtain call: Sept. 25-Oct. 10
Audience: Insiders and aspirers
Plot: Roughly 150,000 Left Coasters attend the annual festival, featuring about 350 films from around the world — some shot right in the event’s backyard.
www.viff.org

Banff Mountain Film Festival
Curtain call: Nov. 1-9
Audience: Mountain men and wildwater women
Plot: Features outdoor adventure movies, submitted by everyone from student filmmakers to National Geographic producers. After the festival wraps up, selected films go on a world tour.
www.banffcentre.ca/mountainculture

Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival
Curtain call: Nov. 12-16
Audience: Pan-global spectators
Plot: Founded in 1997, this festival originally focused on movies from a different country every year. Since 2006, the spectrum has broadened to films that highlight the diversity of Asian people, languages and cultures.
www.reelasian.com

— Allan Britnell

top

EVERY YEAR ON THE LAST WEEKEND IN SEPTEMBER, Claire Mueller dons traditional Bavarian dress and hits tiny Tatamagouche, N.S., for the largest Oktoberfest east of Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont.

The festival is now in its 29th year, and the reason for its success is simple. “The idea is to make people feel as if they’ve been in Germany for an afternoon or an evening,” says Mueller, “and that’s what we do.”

Accommodation is so limited for the weekend-long festival that people open their homes to visitors. Volunteers transform the North Shore Recreation Centre into a Bavarian dance hall, with German beer, sausage, sweets and plenty of oompahpah. “It’s as if you’re walking into a tent in Munich,” says Mueller. “Some people are in Bavarian costume, some speak German, you smell sauerkraut … it’s electric.”

For more information, visit www.nsoktoberfest.ca.