It's a rare honour for an Australian film.

A new section at the Toronto International Film Festival for "filmmakers who'll be the next generation of masters" has selected director Sue Brooks' wheatbelt drama Looking For Grace, which has already been selected to have a world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival.

It stars Radha Mitchell and Richard Roxburgh as a couple searching for their missing daughter, played by Odessa Young, who has run away with a friend to see her favourite band.

Described as a drama with wry comic touches, it was shot in rural Western Australia.

The Platform program, which recognises "12 films from filmmakers with strong voices and distinct styles", is a competition for a $C25,000 ($A26,000) prize awarded by a jury of noted filmmakers Claire Denis, Agnieszka Holland and Jia Zhangke.

Brooks is best known for the Toni Collette drama Japanese Story, which won eight Australian Film Institute Awards including best film and direction in 2003. She also directed the 1997 comic drama The Road To Nhill and the 2009 comic drama Subdivision as well as episodes of SeaChange for television.

The Platform section also includes three French films (Diastème's French Blood, Eva Husson's Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story) and Fabienne Berthaud's Sky) and others from Denmark, Belgium, China, the UK, Canada, the Netherlands, Argentina and Brazil.

Brooks was delighted by the selection for the festival, which runs from September 10 to 20.

"When you like to make, and see, films that are a little bit different, it is fantastic that this section exists and even better to have the film you have just made accepted in it," she said. "Not only will your film have an opportunity to be seen by an international audience but you will have the opportunity to see the films of and meet some of the film makers from around the world who are making artistically ambitious films."

Palace Films general manager Nicolas Whatson described the selection as "a huge honour" at one of the world's largest film festivals, which screens more than 300 films every year.

"We're thrilled not just for Sue, but the entire team behind the film," he said.

Looking for Grace opens in Australia on January 26, 2016.