The Vancouver International Film Festival doesn't have the Hollywood stars like Toronto or the business deals of Cannes, but it has carved out its own unique presence on the film fest circuit.

This year offering more than 333 films from over 75 countries - screening from Sept. 27 to Oct. 12 - VIFF has developed a reputation for presenting the best in international cinema and unabashedly shying away from mainstream American movies and world premieres.

"It is like species differentiation," explains festival director Alan Franey. "We are all part of an ecosystem, so we shouldn't all be feeding on the same food supply. Just as we plan our festival as a complementary opposite to what is on screen the rest of the year in Vancouver, we also plan it as a complementary opposite to Toronto and other festivals in the country."

At press time, VIFF announced that Kari Skogland's The Stone Angel will open Canadian Images. It also announced its opening gala and closing night galas.

The fest will bow with Atonement, by Pride & Prejudice director Joe Wright, whose bold adaptation of Ian McEwan's period melodrama novel stars Keira Knightley. The event will wrap on Oct. 12 with Priceless, writer/director Pierre Salvadori's comedy of morals set on the Cote d'Azur, where a scheming seductress is taken for a romantic ride by a lowly hotel worker.

In total, VIFF will host 13 world premieres, 31 North American premieres and 35 Canadian premieres this year. But the number of new presentations is not a key programming strategy, Franey points out.

"Toronto is such a dominant festival internationally and has such a focus on world premieres that there is no point in us being a pale imitation of them," he explains. "We have taken a different tact. We want to retain the focus on non-Hollywood films here and presenting the best in world cinema."

In particular, VIFF is internationally recognized for programming one of the largest and most successful showcases of documentary films at a general festival. And its Dragons & Tigers series is the largest program of East Asian films shown outside that region. Closer to home, the festival's Canadian Images series is one of the biggest presentations of Canuck films.

Entering its 26th year, Franey says VIFF isn't planning to reinvent the wheel and no radical changes are planned for the 2007 event, but he is building on the festival's core strengths by expanding several of its most renowned programs.

A new Spotlight on China has been added to Dragons & Tigers, and Shelly Kraicer, a Chinese-speaking Canadian film scholar, has been hired to program.

"We thought it was time to diversify the program, and since B.C. is gearing up for stronger China ties - and the entire world is either lusting after or concerned about China as the world's fastest growing power - we wanted to put that country front and center for our growth horizon," Franey says. "As well, Chinese cinema is a particularly fertile area, and there is quite a bit of interest in it."