This time of year brings the cold weather, the gobbling preparations for turkey, and the beginning of the Christmas takeover as people start accosting each other with mistletoe and advertising shouts at you to BUY BUY BUY! This is also the time for Canada's oldest and largest LBGT film fest, image+nation. Last year, films like Yair Hochner's Good Boys and Ash Christian's Fat Girls reigned supreme. This year, the festival is celebrating its twentieth year, and kicks off tonight in Montreal.

It's also doing so with one heck of a lineup of films -- a collection of buzzed-about festival favorites and others that you've probably never heard of. While XXY is surprisingly missing from the line-up, there's lots of other flicks to make up for it. You can check out the full list over at their website, but here's a few that have popped up on Cinematical before:

Itty Bitty Titty Committee -- Ah, the latest comedy from Jamie Babbit, the woman behind the cult favorite But I'm a Cheerleader. This time around, she focuses on an all-American girl who joins a group of radical feminists. Our EIC Erik Davis reviewed the film from Berlin earlier this year, and also sat down for a chat with the women behind the flick, and James Rocchi added a second review from SXSW.

The Picture of Dorian Gray -- Back in 2005, Duncan Roy proclaimed that he put the "gay" back into Dorian Gray, with his Oscar Wilde adaptation, while also boasting about Ryan Phillipe's failed attempt to start up a rival picture. Unfortunately Variety's review says it has "a cavalier disregard for narrative logic, character development, and Wildean wit." Since it's been out for a bit without DVD release, this might be your last chance to see it...if you still want to, of course.

Suffering Man's Charity -- Even though our Scott Weinberg didn't give it a great review, I'm still dying to see Alan Cumming's latest feature, which stars himself, David Boreanaz, and a number of other tasty actors. This screening comes on heals of Cumming winning a Golden Apple at the Big Apple Film Fest, which Erik just blogged about.

Breakfast with Scot -- James Rocchi reviewed Laurie Lynd's film from TIFF this year, and called it a film "as agreeably, tastefully, charmingly slight and lame and trivial as anything the hetero mainstream could make out of the same plotline." It's about an ex-hockey player and his partner, who take in his brother's dead ex-lover's kid.

Black, White & Gray: A Portrait of Sam Wagstaff and Robert Mapplethorpe -- Not surprisingly, James Crump's film about Wagstaff, Mapplethorpe, and Patti Smith made the cut, but even if you don't get a chance to see it in Montreal, Fortissimo is lining up to distribute it.

A Walk into the Sea: Danny Williams & the Warhol Factory -- This documentary, made by Williams' niece Esther Robinson, focuses on one of the forgotten members of Warhol's infamous troupe of characters. As I described from Hot Docs this year, it contains some great, exclusive clips of Warhol, Edie, and the rest, as shot by Williams -- a man who had an affair with Warhol, but whose life and death are steeped in mystery.

[via indieWIRE]

Note: The following interview was conducted during the 57th Berlinale, where Itty Bitty Titty Committee had its World Premiere in the fest's Panorama section. This week, during its North American premiere at SXSW, the film took home a Jury Award for narrative feature.

Directed by Jamie Babbit (But I'm a Cheerleader), Itty Bitty Titty Committee is a politically-charged romantic dramedy which focuses on a girl named Hannah (Melanie Diaz) who finds her boring, ordinary life flipped upside down upon meeting Sadie (Nicole Vicious), leader of the CiA (or Clits in Action) -- a group of radical feminists who attempt to spread their message in some unique (and often dangerously illegal) ways.

This is familiar territory for Babbit, who dealt with similar themes in But I'm a Cheerleader -- a film, mind you, that she originally received an NC-17 rating for. With some pretty steamy (yet tame) lesbian sex and characters who attempt to blow up a national monument, Cinematical sat down with Jamie (as well as cast members Nicole Vicious, Daniela Sea, Joel Michaely and producer Lisa Thrasher) to learn more about Itty Bitty Titty Committee and whether Jamie (who appeared in the pic This Film is Not Yet Rated) was worried her latest would face similar ratings problems.

Cinematical: First off, I love the title for this film; I think it's awesome. Where did it come from?

Jamie Babbit: Actually, the title came from Guinevere Turner (who plays Marcy the reporter). It was her idea, and so we incorporated it into the film.

More after the jump ...