Vancouver: Western Canadian cinema will move into the spotlight next month when more than 250 films from 40 countries are screened at the 12th annual Vancouver International Film Festival.

Alan Franey, festival director, says this year Western films are "front and centre". For the first time in the festival's history, a Western Canada-produced feature, Digger, will kick off the 17-day event with an opening night gala Oct. 1.

Directed by Vancouver-based Robert Turner and produced by Vancouver's Circle Northwood Productions in association with WIC Western International Communications, Digger is a coming-of-age drama set on Vancouver Island and tells of the special friendship between two remarkable young boys. It stars Olympia Dukakis, Leslie Nielsen, Barbara Williams, Timothy Bottoms, Joshua Jackson and Adam Hann-Byrd (Little Man Tate).

In keeping with the coastal flavor, The Lotus Eaters, set on Galiano in the Gulf Islands, will also receive a special presentation. Executive produced by Alexandra Raffe (I've Heard The Mermaids Singing), produced by Sharon McGowan and Peggy Thompson, with Paul Shapiro making his feature film directorial debut, The Lotus Eaters is a nostalgic look back into the '60s when a hip young Quebec school teacher arrives in a vw van and the whole island falls in love with her until she begins a fling with the father of one of her students.

Among the 50 films that will also be featured in the Canadian Images series are Zero Patience, directed by John Greyson; Mustard Bath by Darrell Wasyk; The Perfect Man, directed by Wendy Hill-Tout, the documentary Blockade, by Nettie Wild; and I Love a Man In Uniform, by David Wellington.

Asian films in the Dragons and Tigers: The Cinemas Of Eastern Asia section continue to represent the largest program and a major focus at the festival. As does Children of Fate: Nonfiction Features of 1993, an extensive program devoted to current documentary practice and new approaches to political and ethical questions. Walk On The Wild Side, a midnight series of nonconventional films aimed at devotees of extreme and unusual cinema returns this year along with Cinema Of Our Time, an international series featuring the best new films from around the world.

Famed l.a.-based screenwriter Stewart Stern, who scripted Rebel Without a Cause, The Ugly American and Summer Wishes Winter Dreams, will chair the jury for the 1993 Rogers Award For Best Canadian Screenplay along with Montreal writer/director Andree Pelletier and Vancouver novelist/screenwriter Linda Svendsen.

The 8th annual Film and Television Trade Forum will be held concurrently with the festival, from Oct. 7-9.

Forum producer Robert Straight says this year's forum, entitled "Contribution - A Concept For the Achievement of Creative and Financial Goals", is specifically designed to open doors to the business possibilities that the Canadian film industry is providing for companies and professionals.

He says this year's sessions, which will cover case studies of film production, interview simulations and a panel discussion on the financial aspects of the industry is the most comprehensive and ambitious program ever undertaken by the forum organizers.

Among the roster of international industry professionals invited are screenwriter Malcolm MacRury (The Man Without a Face); Dick Sano, president of Tokyo based ASCII Pictures; Simon Perry, chief executive of London, Eng.-based British Screen Finance; and Nana Greenwald, co-producer of The Fugitive and executive vice-president creative affairs with Arnold Kopelson Productions in L.A.