Things are really beginning to take shape for the 20th edition of the Atlantic Film Festival, running Sept. 15-23 in Halifax.

A number of new initiatives are being launched this year to help celebrate the milestone, including a directors film series, which launches May 25 and runs throughout the summer, leading up to the festival. Four East Coast-based award-winning directors have selected a film which they will discuss and present at monthly screenings.

Kicking off the series May 25 is Thom Fitzgerald and To Kill A Mockingbird. Lulu Keating will present The Celebration in June, followed by Bill MacGillivray with Wings of Desire in July. The series concludes in August with Mike Clattenburg and Bottle Rocket.

"During the festival we will continue that series with a Canadian directors series," says aff executive director Gord Whittaker. "The idea is to use acclaimed Canadian directors for two screenings during the opening weekend [of the festival]." Don McKellar has tentatively agreed to host the Canadian directors series.

The aff will also take its show on the road in November, making stops in Fredericton, Moncton, Charlottetown and St. John's, where it will present an evening of screenings and receptions, offering a taste of the festival to those who couldn't make it to Halifax.

Word is the Strategic Partners portion of the festival will have a u.k. focus this year. Festival producer Ann Bernier recently visited the u.k., hitting London, Glasgow, Dublin and Edinburgh during her tour. According to Whittaker, Bernier reported a lot of positive response and interest from the u.k. film community.

*White to run off with the circus - sort of

St. John's, Nfld.-based producer Marian Francis White of Codlessco says her new docudrama project is creeping ever closer to reality. Tentatively titled Circus on the High Seas, the one-hour project will focus on the exploits of circus performer Benny Malone, who earned his stripes in the circus business by training in Paris and performing with the Ringling Bros. traveling circus.

"It is a joining of those world circus forces, taking us on a romp through that world," says White.

In visiting the folks who taught Malone the craft of circus performance, White and her crew (a director is not yet attached) will travel far and wide to get their story.

"[Circus performance] is a particular fascination of mine, and it is also something that hasn't been done [on film]," says White. "I love the idea of connecting with a particular style of performance, and this one has such connections in other countries."

White's daughter, who is currently training with the Cirque du Soleil, provided a little extra inspiration.

White hopes to get her show on the road soon, documenting a circus troupe as it travels by boat to remote areas of Newfoundland and Labrador.

"[The circus] is going to those communities that you only hear such negative things about, but we've already experienced going there and seeing how much the local kids totally go bananas for this bit of fun," she says.