Those thinking that Quebec's cinematic winning streak will have to abate at some point will have to wait for at least another year. The region has provided TIFF with solid commercial and critical hits in recent years, from La Grande seduction (Seducing Doctor Lewis) to Oscar winner Les Invasions barbares (The Barbarian Invasions), and this year's contingent arrives bolstered by awards from international film festivals and box-office success back home.

C.R.A.Z.Y. and L'Horloge biologique (Biological Clock) have already opened in Quebec, inspiring near-universal critical praise and drawing healthy crowds. For the first two weeks in August, Horloge topped the Quebec box office, supplanting even the Hollywood blockbusters also screening. Though the term "biological clock" is usually associated with women and procreation, the serio-comic film is about three men grappling with recent or imminent parenthood.

Directed by Ricardo Trogi (Québec-Montréal), it stars Patrice Robitaille, Pierre-François Legendre and Jean-Philippe Pearson as the three struggling dads. Horloge was cowritten by Trogi, Robitaille and Pearson, produced by Nicole Robert (Québec-Montréal) and is being distributed by Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm.

Another TIFF entry popular in la belle province is C.R.A.Z.Y., a coming-of-age film that opened in early June and is now poised to break the $5-million mark at the Quebec box office.

Writer/director Jean-Marc Vallée struggled to make the film, and even considered translating the entire script into English and shooting it in Boston, a location that would have allowed its Catholic themes to remain intact. The result is a moving melodrama about a young lad (played by 2005 Playback 10 to Watch finalist Marc-André Grondin), who is the fourth in a family of five boys and struggles to deal with his own differences. The family patriarch (Le dernier tunnel's Michel Côté) is none-too-thrilled about his son's distinct character, but learns to accept it.

Director Vallée says that even though his central character is learning to accept being gay, the film has universal themes that anyone who ever had to survive teen angst will relate to.

His theory for the film's runaway success in Quebec?

"Since we're alone in Quebec, surrounded by English Canada and English-speaking America, we feel different in our environment," Vallée says. "Perhaps that makes it easier for us to accept the different ones."

Cowritten by Francois Boulay, C.R.A.Z.Y. is produced by Vallée and Cirrus Communications' Pierre Even, Jacques Blain and Richard Speer, and is distributed by TVA Films.

Bernard Émond's La Neuvaine (The Novena) comes to TIFF after netting three awards at the 58th Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland. The drama tells the story of a young man (Patrick Drolet from Émond's 20h17 rue Darling) who is on a prayer pilgrimage for his ailing grandmother and meets up with a doctor (Elise Guilbault from Grande ourse) devastated by the recent loss of her child, which she blames on herself. Through their shared sense of grief, the two form a bond that proves redemptive.