The early autumn dates position the TIFF as a major springboard for the annual awards season. Recent Toronto favorites like "American Beauty," "Juno," "Slumdog Millionaire" and "The Hurt Locker" went on to win Oscars. However, it is also a chance to spotlight new, smaller films. South African-born German director Oliver Schmitz brought his powerful drama of a teenager's struggle to keep her family together, "Life Above All:"

Of course, whenever filmmakers gather, they 'do lunch,' as they say: hold informal business meetings that can lead to a film being picked up for distribution in markets around the world or, as Oliver Schmitz points out, also pave the way for new projects:

"I think the best scenario for any film festival is to have one film that is screening and another one which is ready to shoot and looking for that final financing. It is what happened this year in Cannes on a project that I'm shooting in Germany next year and Paramount is part of that project so that was fantastic. Now I'm concentrating on the movie, but already I've had meetings this morning, which will lead to other things," he said. "So the best thing, actually, is to have something that people can see and take note of and then say 'hey, I also have this other project.'

Festival official Bailey says the crowded theaters and backroom meetings are not his main measures of success for the film showcase.

"We do have quantitative measures we can look at: the number of pictures that are sold, the number of premieres that we have, the number of tickets sold, as well. But I think what I often do is I like to stand in the back of a theater with a filmmaker and just see how he or she reacts to the film. If they are watching the audience and the audience is into it and the filmmaker is pleased by that and this is an experience that they haven't had yet - this is the world premiere of their film and they're loving it and if they'll come back as a result with their next film, then that's success for me," he said.