By Garry Maddox
Two high-profile films with Australian directors - Jocelyn Moorhouse's The Dressmaker and Wayne Blair's Septembers of Shiraz - will have world premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The leading North American festival has announced gala screenings for Moorhouse's sumptuous-looking Australian drama, with Kate Winslet as a glamorous woman who uses her sewing machine to transform the women of her home town in rural Australia, and Blair's American thriller about a Persian-Jewish family trying to escape during the Iranian revolution that stars Adrien Brody and Salma Hayek.
Bound for Toronto: Kate Winslet in The Dressmaker. Credit: Ben King
Simon Stone's The Daughter, a Australian timber town drama that had its world premiere at Sydney Film Festival, will also screen as a special presentation at the festival, which runs from September 10 to 20.
For Moorhouse, best known for Proof and How To Make An American Quilt, The Dressmaker is a comeback after a difficult time personally.
Director Wayne Blair (in black cap) on set with the crew of Septembers of Shiraz.
While she has been writing scripts and produced husband PJ Hogan's films Peter Pan and Mental, she has not directed a film since 1997's A Thousand Acres.
There were very personal reasons to focus on life outside directing.
Part of it was a bruising experience attempting to make the abandoned Russell Crowe-Nicole Kidman drama Eucalyptus in 2005.
"That was a terribly sad time for me; I'd say not just for me but mostly for me," she said.
Odessa Young in The Daughter.Credit: Mark Rogers
"And hot on the heels of having that film fall through, I had a personal crisis - my little boy got diagnosed with autism so that took over my life for a long time.
"That's my second child with autism so that really changed my whole focus for a good six years. I was really just focussing on my children."
Wayne Blair with Lisa Flanagan in Redfern Now. Credit: Mark Rogers
Moorhouse, who has four children aged from 25 to eight, almost gave up on directing again.
"As the years went by, I kept thinking it's less and less likely to happen. So I'm very grateful that [producer] Sue Maslin came knocking at my door and kept knocking until I answered it."
She was thrilled by the festival selection.
"It's really exciting," she said. "It's a very important launch platform because it's such a prestigious festival. A lot of people pay attention, especially the American distributors we're hoping to sell the film to."
Adapted from a novel by Rosalie HamThe Dressmaker's cast also includes Judy Davis, Hugo Weaving, Liam Hemsworth and Sarah Snook.
The triumphant response to Blair's first film, The Sapphires, saw him offered Septembers of Shiraz, which he shot in Bulgaria.
From New Zealand, where he is working on post-production of the TV series Cleverman, he described the festival selection as "a lovely surprise".
"I'll have a chance to see the beautiful American producers again and Selma and Adrien," he said. "It's a nice reunion ...
"Any chance that a film you've made gets a screening with ready made audience is beautiful. One feels blessed."
Septembers of Shiraz was Blair's first visit to Bulgaria.
"Everyone's first language was Bulgarian so it was an adventure I'll never forget," he said. "It was a Bulgarian crew except for editor John Scott, Annie Beauchamp the production designer and my old mate Warwick Thornton was cinematographer."
The movie, adapted from a novel by Dalia Sofer, is set in 1979 - around the same time as Ben Affleck's best picture Oscar-winning drama Argo.
"This story is about a family during that time and the sacrifices a husband and wife have to make as they try to get out of Iran," Blair said.
An actor-director who was a regular on both sides of the camera for the TV series Redfern Now, Blair also went to Toronto with The Sapphires.
"That was a gorgeous screening with the four girls and Chris O'Dowd," he said. "That was another little reunion."
The festival will open with Dallas Buyers Club director Jean-Marc Vallée's Demolition, a drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Naomi Watts.