The Toronto Urban Film Festival, presented by Toronto-based Onestop Media Group on the company’s digital OOH screens at subway stations, has broken records this year.

The festival of one-minute films received 355 submissions from 25 countries, Michael Girgis, president and CEO, Onestop Media Group, tells MiC, noting that the cash amount for winners and the number of prizes being handed out has also increased. The number of submissions in 2010 represents a 43% increase over 2009.

Co-produced with the Art for Commuters collective and supported by the City of Toronto, TUFF will show a slate of 80 films on the 270 subway screens during the length of the Toronto International Film Festival, Sept. 10 to 19. It is the festival’s fourth year.

On most of the subway platform screens, the films will run amongst the regular mix of sports, weather, news and ads, but there will also be designated screening areas at some of the city’s busiest stations. These ‘TUFF Film Zones’ will screen the films continuously through the festival.

The Onestop subway platform screen network reaches 1.3 million commuters daily.