New films from Taylor Hackford, JohnSayles, Dylan Kidd will make their world premieres at the Toronto InternationalFilm Festival (Sept 9-18). The festival unveiled a number of titles across thespectrum of its selection, including two world premieres from South Africa, thefocus of this year's national spotlight programme

Hackford's Ray, a biopic of recently-departed blues legend Ray Charles,features Jamie Foxx in the lead role with a script by James L. White.

Sayles,a long-time festival favourite, returns with Silver City, a story of unseemlypolitics and murder featuring Chris Cooper, Richard Dreyfuss and Danny Huston.

P.S.,Kidd's second film after his impressive debut, Roger Dodger, features Laura Linney as adivorcee who is enthralled by a younger man who is the doppelganger of anearlier now deceased lover. The film also features Topher Grace, Marcia GayHarden and Gabriel Byrne.

The two South African titles making worldpremieres are Tom Hooper's Red Dust, aUK/SA co-production set against the backdrop of South Africa's Truth andReconciliation Commission, starring Hilary Swank and Dirty Pretty Things' Chiwetel Ejiofor; and Terry George's Hotel Rwanda, , starring Don Cheadle and Nick Nolte, the true story of Paul Rusesabagina, the Hutu Rwandan 'Schindler' who saved thousands of Tutsi lives during the 1994 genocide. As well, DarrellJames Roodt's Yesterday, the firstfilm ever shot in the Zulu language, will make its North American premiere atthe festival.

Other films making North American premieresare Zhang Yimou's House Of FlyingDaggers, starring Zhang Ziyi and Takeshi Kaneshiro; Roger Michell's Enduring Love, based on the novel by IanMcEwan and starring Samantha Morton; Todd Solondz's Palindromes, featuring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ellen Barkin and ChrisPenn; Jean-Luc Godard's Notre Musique; BenoitJacquot's A Tout De Suite; Chileanfilmmaker Patricio Guzman's documentary SalvadorAllende; Swedish filmmaker Lukas Moodysson's A Hole In My Heart, which picks up where his Lilya 4-Ever left off; Shinya Tsukamoto's Vital, starring Hiroshi Takagi and Nami Tsukamoto; and LisandroAlonso's second film, The Dead, anArgentina/Netherlands/France/Switzerland co-production.

Also screening is Jonathan Caouette'sastonishing debut Tarnation, whichpremiered at Sundance and screened in the Quinzaine.