Yesterday afternoon was a very exciting afternoon for me. Not only did I have leftover chickpea curry for dinner, but I came home from work to find a smรถrgasbord of announcements from the Toronto International Film Festival waiting for me in my inbox.

While the press conference scheduled for Tuesday was canceled out of respect for the funeral of the Canadian Opera Company's Richard Bradshaw, the TIFF Group was quick to send out emails and update their website with the full list of announced films and filmmakers that will be making an appearance at this year's festival.

A few staggering numbers were revealed in the announcements yesterday. This year's festival will feature:

• 349 films,
• films from 55 countries,
• 275 feature or mid-length films,
• 71 directorial debuts,
• and, over 230 international or North American premieres.

In addition to all the new films that were announced yesterday, the TIFF group also announced a special event to take place during this year's festival. Famed actor and director Peter Bogdanovich will be presented with the International Federation of Film Archives Award for his contribution to film preservation. Jean Renoir's 1937 film La Grande Illusion will be screened as part of the event.

Every day next week, we'll take a closer look at some of the more intriguing announcements that were made yesterday, so be sure to check out blogTO's TIFF 2007 coverage for more analysis and picks from the film writers on this site.

Tickets packages for the festival are still on sale, and Gala and Visa Screening Room tickets go on sale this Saturday. Tickets for all other screenings go on sale on September 5th.

Photo courtesy of Toronto International Film Festival.