TORONTO - The light-hearted coming-of-age tale "Score: A Hockey Musical" will open the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival, a marked departure from the typically serious and issue-oriented features that have launched the fest in the past.
Festival directors Piers Handling and Cameron Bailey announced the pick Wednesday at the Hockey Hall of Fame, where they wore white jerseys and were flanked by hockey sticks propped up against a stand.
"Launching the festival with a comedy, something that was about hockey during the Olympic year, it was just kind of a match made in heaven," Handling said later to reporters, referring to gold medal Olympics wins in men's and women's hockey in Vancouver.
"It's just so well acted, it's so light, it's so self-deprecating and doesn't take itself seriously. It's extremely Canadian."
"Score: A Hockey Musical" stars newcomer Noah Reid as a sheltered 17-year-old hockey phenom who achieves instant stardom when he joins a hockey league.
Olivia Newton-John and singer/songwriter Marc Jordan play the boy's over-protective parents, while there are cameos from singer Nelly Furtado, talk show host George Stroumboulopoulos, hockey dad Walter Gretzky and former NHL star Theo Fleury.
It comes from Toronto director Michael McGowan, whose other films include the Joshua Jackson road movie, "One Week," and the period drama, "Saint Ralph."
"I really hope this is a story that's fun, that's entertaining and that really makes us feel Canadian," said McGowan.
He said he was stunned to be given the prestigious opening slot at the festival.
"As a filmmaker you don't know what the life of your film is going to be, you can't predict it and you don't even want to handicap your chances of getting into Toronto, let alone open it. So when they chose us as the opening I was sort of, like, in a bit of shock."
Past films that have opened the festival include Paul Gross's war epic, "Passchendaele," the Inuit tale "The Journals of Knud Rasmussen," and the holocaust survival story "Fugitive Pieces."
Handling said the most similar predecessor to "Score" might be the rock'n'roll dramedy "Whale Music," which launched the fest in 1994.
Last year, organizers broke with the tradition of choosing a Canadian opener and went with the British period piece "Creation," about Charles Darwin.
This year, Handling said programmers sought a Canadian opener that would be fun, and have broad appeal.
"We're just looking for something that's really unique, really engaging and is going to connect with a large audience as well as, obviously, with critics," he said.
"It's been a very, very serious year. We've all come back from Cannes and I think the films there were extremely serious. Luckily, we've seen a number of comedies this year in our selection."
Handling added that while festivals tend to be serious and feature filmmakers taking on issues of the world, Toronto's fest is a "populist festival."
"We're a festival that's oriented to the public and there's extraordinary comedic talent out there and we go and try and find those because it's nice to have the balance in festivals," he said.
Handling offered no hints about the rest of the festival slate, but did say it will "shrink just a little bit."
"We went into this festival saying, let's pull it back a little bit," he said.
"Everyone thinks that the festival is far too big. Last year we actually grew just a little bit, this year we're just going to shrink it and nobody actually notices a difference at all."
"Score: A Hockey Musical" features music from Barenaked Ladies, Newton-John, Amy Sky and Jordan. It's slated to open in theatres Oct. 22.
The Toronto International Film Festival runs Sept. 9 to 19, when it will mark its 35th year.
