Le Sélect Bistro, Toronto | Arts and entertainment events in Toronto

Score: A Hockey Musical

It's time for the 35th Toronto International Film Festival! Running from Sepetember 9 to 19, the fest's set to present a great range of cinematic delights. The box office this year is at 363 King West, at Peter Street. (Conveniently close, we note, to Le Sélect. Get fortified before you stand in line.) Events to look forward to include Ed Norton interviewing Bruce Springsteen in conjunction with a new documentary, Steve Nash's film about Terry Fox, and this year's Cannes winner, Leap Year. Also, the thoroughly Canadian Score: A Hockey Musical, in which luminous local talent (plus the non-local but fitting-right-in Olivia Newton-John) shine a light on the national obsession. Set in Toronto, it's the story of a young hockey prodigy who just wants to play- but whose Annex-dwelling peacenik parents are horrified by the fisticuffs that go with the game. Pucks or parents: who's going to win? Check out the complete film list.

Truffaut's classic Jules et Jim

And this year, the fest will leave something permanent behind: Bell Lightbox. The film fest finally has a year-round home and five great new screens. And the Cinématheque will be transformed. To celebrate its new location, there's a series of the 100 Essential Films, commencing right after the film fest ends. From City Lights to Jules et Jim to Annie Hall to Jaws to La Dolce Vita, this is an unbeatable chance to see a century's worth of classics where they belong- in the cinema.

Dégas: l'Orchestre de l'Opéra, one of the featured works in Drama and Desire.

The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) now houses a bigger and better collection of art, with some tremendous additions from the Thomson and Frum collections. They include a stunning collection of European art and sculpture, a flotilla of extraordinary model ships, and art and sculpture from sub-Saharan Africa. Plus there's the old favourites: 11000 years of Canadian art, Dutch and Flemish masters, Henry Moore, and a big contemporary collection overlooking Grange Park.

Drama and Desire: Artists and the Theatre runs to September 26, and features artwork inspired by the theatre, by Degas, Delacroix and other masters, presented “on stage” with live performers, full-scale sets and period lighting, designed by Opera Atelier’s set designer Gerard Gauci. Visitors will enter the exhibition through elaborately painted trompe l’oeil draperies and arches. Gerard has also recreated an intimate corner of the Paris Opera to house a selection of Degas’s ballet paintings.

Julian Schnabel: Art and Film

Also at the AGO: Julian Schnabel: Art and Film is the first retrospective of the work of the painter and film director (Before Night Falls, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly). The exhibition will showcase his paintings dating back to the mid-1970s and examine the connection and interplay between between his canvases and his films. To January 2.

At the Royal Ontario Museum: the ever-popular Bat Cave is reopened and is now bigger and better, with more bats, animatronics and atmospheric sights and sounds. Plus there's the permanent collection - everything from Chinese temple art to the amazing collection of crystals which inspired Daniel Liebeskind's glass and metal extension. Among the current exhibitions:

In China, the terracotta soldiers fill a warehouse

The Warrior Emperor and China's Terracotta Army showcases one of the great archaeological finds in history- the 2200-year-old tomb complex of China's First Emperor. It's the largest tomb complex in China, and possibly the world. To January 2.

One of Edward Burtynsky's photos of the BP oil spill

Leo Kamen Gallery, at 80 Spadina just north of King, is on vacation, but will return on September 11 with new work by Ken Singer and Allyson Clay. Get updates on the Leo Kamen site.

Still in our neighbourhood (and even closer to Le Sélect) is Nicholas Metivier Gallery, 451 King St West, west of Spadina. Starting on September 15 is a pair of linked exhibitions by local star photographer Edward Burtynsky. Oil Spill features images of BP's catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. Also showing is an older exhibition, Pentimento, a series of and black and white photographs of shipbreaking in Bangladesh.Check out the gallery website.

Swan Lake

Factory Theatre is also an easy walk from Le Sélect, and always features outstanding new Canadian theatre. The 2010-11 season will begin with Billy Twinkle: Requiem for a Golden Boy, created and performed by Ronnie Burkett, from September 24 to October 24. See more on the Factory Theatre website.

The Canadian Opera Company at the Four Seasons Centre at Queen and University returns with Verdi's Aida, from October 2 to November 5. Check the COC website for details. Also sharing the Four Seasons Centre is the National Ballet of Canada, whose next season starts with Cinderella, November 11 to 20.