Richard Crouse

The Toronto International Film Festival is a magnet for movie legends. This year Clint Eastwood, Robert De Niro and Robert Redford will decorate red carpets around town, but for every walking artifact of Hollywood history there are a dozen rising stars that come to TIFF to bask in the reflected light.

On the short list of TIFF up-and-comers bound for big things are Emma Stone who is sure to grab some eyes for her hilarious turn in Easy A, Kat Dennings, the voluptuous seductress of Daydream Nation and former CSI star Lauren Lee Smith, here with a breakout performance in A Night for Dying Tigers. Calling it a “very simple film with complex characters,” Smith says “it feels really good to be here with a film I’m proud of.”

Buzzed about names from the other side of the camera include Gareth Edwards, the young Brit director here with his micro-budgeted horror film Monsters and Michael Goldbach, the Canadian director of Daydream Nation. His debut film has attracted a lot of attention; already his next script has been optioned by the folks behind Juno and 500 Days Of Summer.

“The amazing thing about TIFF is that it has famously been the catalyst for a lot of filmmakers careers,” he says. “I’d love to tap into that tradition.”