The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has quickly worked its way to the top of the second tier in the hierarchy of the world's film-festivals. It features a range of programs that are packed with films from many pre-eminent directors and exciting newcomers from all around the world. The Gala Programme features all the big name films. These are the ones with big stars that usually get a decently wide distribution in theatres after the fact. I won't be featuring any of the Gala films in today's list because you'll likely end up hearing about those ones anyways. Instead, I'll let you in on some potential gems that might not get as widely distributed- making it less likely that you'll hear about them otherwise. These films will be chosen from the other feature-oriented programs, like the Discovery- which features up-and-coming directors to watch out for; Contemporary World Cinema- which features "compelling stories global perspectives; Vanguard- which features "provocative, sexy and sometimes dangerous films; Special Presentation- which features high profile premieres from some the most renown directors; Masters- which features films from the world's most prominent arthouse directors; and Midnight Madness programmes- which features "the best in action, horror, shock and fantasy cinema" at late night screenings. In a few cases, the films have been screened at prior festivals, with the TIFF screenings being their North American (previously screened publically outside of N. America) or International (previously screened at a private festival, first public screening) Premieres, but for the rest- which will be making their World Premieres at TIFF- it's hard to judge how they'll turn out in advance, other than speculatively. Many of the films being screened don't even have a trailer yet! So all you have to go on is a short description and a couple screenshots. Anyways, here are 10 very promising sounding films that I think you should keep an eye out for if you can't make it out to Toronto cinemas over the next couple weeks.... *NOTE: all quotes taken from TIFF.net (the official site of the film festival) unless otherwise stated*