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Many Oscar hopefuls will be shown at the festival that draws top Hollywood talent and an instant buzz for the films.
The festival considered along with Cannes, Venice, Berlin and Sundance as one of the most influential festivals, will screen 328 films, over 250 of them being feature films, over 10 days.
Several offbeat films will join the latest works of such masters as 74-year-old Jean-Luc Goddard.
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Dasgupta, whose A Tale Of Naughty Girl was one of the best received films at Toronto in 2002, will premiere his new film in Toronto.
Chasing Dreams will be screened in the Masters section. At least 200 films will have their North American premiere at this year's festival including Zhang Yimou whose Hero has been at the top of North American box office for two weeks. He brings House Of Flying Dagger to Toronto.
In the Visions section, the acclaimed documentary director Elida Schogt offers her feature film Zero: The Inside Story, a Mexican, American and Indian production. The film focuses on a woman who journeys to India to find the origins of the number zero. It investigates the concept of zero, how it touches the human consciousness in unexpected ways, and subtly interweaves metaphysical musings with the story of a young girl trying to recover the wonders of her childhood.
From South Africa comes Yesterday, the first Zulu language film, produced by Anant Singh.
Singh is a pioneer in the anti-apartheid film movement who started producing films underground over 25 years ago.
Bringing glamour to the 10-day event are Hollywood heavyweights Helen Hunt, Sandra Bullock, Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn, Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman.
"It is a festival that has grown in stature year after year, and attracts the best of the films from all over the world," says Ashok Amritraj, whose Dustin Hoffman-Susan Sarandon starrer Moonlight Mile opened at Toronto two years ago. Many Indian films like Lagaan have attracted buyers at the festival.
Toronto starts with the world premiere gala presentation of Being Julia, a story of marital conflict. Set in 1930s London, and based on a Somerset Maugham novel, it stars Annette Benning as a conniving stage actress. Jeremy Irons plays her producer husband.
The festival will close on September 18 with Jiminy Glick In Lalawood, a spoof staring comedian Martin Short as a cheap, manipulating reporter caught up in a murder mystery.
Highlights include Kinsey, starring Liam Neeson as the controversial sex researcher and Ray, starring Jami Foxx as the blind soul music legend Ray Charles who died recently. There are strong speculations that Foxx may be nominated for an Oscar for the film.
Pedro Almodovar, the Oscar winning director and writer, brings his latest Bad Education, a heavy indictment of the Catholic Church to the festival. Almodovar, who has a big following in North America, was the subject of a recent The New York Times magazine cover. 'Cinema's most daring director makes a film about the church that Mel Gibson (The Passion Of The Christ) would damn,' declared the magazine.
Also eagerly awaited is the world premiere of Downfall, a German film about Hitler's last 12 days. Swiss actor Bruno Ganz may get an Oscar nomination for playing Hitler in this controversial film. In Germany and Austria, the film has started a debate whether it could be seen by neo-Nazis as sympathetic to Hitler.
