The Toronto International Film Festival's search is over for an opening-night Canadian movie not likely to be eclipsed by cross-town Hollywood premieres, and one that can match all festival-comers in both bulk and range.

Paul Gross' Passchendaele is a Canadian film more in the Hollywood mold than out to break it, subversive for being a passionate love story amid the horrors of the First World War, but irresistible for being so obviously Canadian.

Writer/director/coproducer/star Gross didn't make Passchendaele with the Toronto festival in mind - as with his directorial debut Men with Brooms, Gross has commercial ambitions.

"I really made it for the audience. Of course, I'm thrilled that it's [in Toronto]," he says.

Victor Loewy of Alliance Films, who will release Passchendaele theatrically in mid-October, says the epic drama is unlikely to leave gold patrons dozing off on the Sept. 4 opening night, as have a string of recent Toronto openers.

"In the last couple years, the films were too intimate and too small, and the audience that comes to opening night expects a bigger spectacle and a bigger show," Loewy says. "This is one occasion where we have a film with a 'big-screen' feel in every way."

It was festival co-directors Piers Handling and Cameron Bailey who last winter approached the film's Toronto coproducer, Rhombus Media, to show initial interest in Passchendaele for the coveted opening-night slot.

At the time, a nervous Gross was still editing the movie, so the TIFF programmers had to wait until April for a private screening. Handling and Bailey liked what they saw, and waited until Cannes to screen a host of other Canadian entrants, including Fernando Meirelles' Blindness and Atom Egoyan's Adoration, before they handed the plum spot to Gross.

"It's not often that you get an epic film - a big-scale, sweeping production about such a pivotal moment in Canadian history that's been brought to the screen by such a well-known figure," Bailey explains, citing Gross' renowned acting work and recent activism against Bill C-10 on Parliament Hill as added grounds for the festival's choice.

Loewy says the festival will provide a useful platform from which to build buzz around Passchendaele.

"The natural way is to open a festival, or do a big event in Ottawa or Calgary. This can't be started from the U.S. The film has no interest for the Americans," he explains.

Passchendaele is also perfect for a festival that needs to balance on an egg, drawing Oscar contenders and other star-driven cinema as it showcases lower-budget Canadian pictures to create an after-market for them.

Gross' war epic equally stands out for its $20-million budget. Getting international coproduction dollars for a quintessentially Canadian story proved elusive for the filmmaker. But Gross didn't settle on a $5-million or $6-million budget, as many Canadian producers do. He knew he couldn't make the film with that kind of money.