OTTAWA: The upcoming Toronto film festival will showcase a “big year” for Reese Witherspoon, James Gandolfini’s final movie and Oscar-bait performances from several major Hollywood stars, organizers said Tuesday.

More than 300 feature films will be screened at the 39th Toronto International Film Festival, which runs from September 4 to 14.

The event has traditionally been key for Oscar-conscious studios and distributors, attracting hundreds of filmmakers and actors to the red carpet in Canada’s largest city.

Last year, Steve McQueen’s “12 Years a Slave” won the audience prize for best picture, before going on to win three Oscars including the coveted statuette for best picture.

In presenting this year’s line-up, festival boss Cameron Bailey told a press conference in Toronto that fans of Witherspoon should be ready for a “big year” from the Oscar winner.

The 38-year-old Witherspoon has been one of Hollywood’s highest-paid and most bankable box office draws since her breakout starring turn in the 2001 comedy “Legally Blonde.”

But she failed to gain credibility as a serious actress until her 2006 Oscar win for her turn as singer June Carter Cash — the wife of superstar Johnny Cash — in James Mangold’s biopic “Walk the Line.”

In September, Toronto audiences will have an opportunity to see her again in two new films: “The Good Lie” about an American woman who takes in a Sudanese refugee, and “Wild,” the film adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s best-selling memoir.

“Wild” is directed by Jean-Marc Vallee, whose previous feature, “Dallas Buyers Club” began its journey to Oscar success in Toronto last year.

James Gandolfini makes a posthumous return to movie screens in the gangland tale “The Drop,” shot just before his death in June 2013.

His penultimate film “Enough Said,” a romantic comedy co-starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, was warmly received in Toronto last year.