With his Oscar-winning Dallas Buyer’s Club still fresh in our minds, the Vancouver International Film Festival has scored Quebecois director Jean-Marc Vallée’s latest, Wild, for its opening night gala on September 25.

Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern star in the drama—about a recovering addict who attempts an 1800 km hike along the Pacific Crest Trail—which was adapted by writer Nick Hornby from the Oprah-approved memoir by Cheryl Strayed.

Closing out the festival 10 days later is Whiplash, the tale of an obsessed jazz drummer and his bullying mentor. Damien Chazelle’s film smoked audiences as the opener at this year’s Sundance festival, with actors Miles Teller and the veteran JK Simmons both winning raves.

Both films are generating a lot of buzz in the run-up to the Toronto International Film Festival.

Among the other gala presentations, Japanese feature The Vancouver Asahi (previously titled The Rising Sun Over Vancouver) gets its world premiere exactly where it oughta in the newly-christened Special Presentation Gala (formerly Dragons and Tigers Gala). Director Yûya Ishii’s period epic is about the baseball team formed in our own Japantown by second-generation immigrants prior to the Second World War.

October Gale gets the Canadian Images gala slot. Director Rubba (Cairo Time) Nada’s thriller stars Patricia Clarkson, Scott Speedman and Tim Roth.

Now in its 33rd year, VIFF brings 32 world premieres to its 2014 edition, running from September 25 to October 10.