Everything old is new again, or so you might believe after a screening or two at the Toronto Silent Film Festival (March 29 – April 3).

To the dynamic accompaniment of live musical performances (improvised and played on the spot by local musicians and the Toronto Theatre Organ Society), five silent films will unspool over the course of the event at rep cinemas like the Carlton and the Revue.

In addition to the thoughtfully chosen old-time features, the festival will include a selection of animated pre-feature shorts, noise-free samplings from the Toronto Urban Film Festival and other modern-day examples of silent film.

In its bill proper, the festival offers five silent movies, all produced in the ’20s and ’30s in Europe or America (the youngest film showing at the fest turns 81 this year).

We’re particularly excited about Blood and Sand (March 31, 4 p.m., Revue Cinema). A silent classic, this 1922 Rudolph Valentino joint tracks the romantic adventures of a bullfighting lothario played by the world’s first matinee idol. We're also keen to see Our Dancing Daughters (March 29, 8 p.m., Innis Town Hall Screen 2). This sweet bit of celluloid captures a ’20s Joan Crawford in one of her first-ever screen performances, penning a love letter to the jazz age.

The other offerings are Tabu: a Tale of the South Seas (March 30, 7:30 p.m., Carlton Cinema), a simple love story set against the stark beauty of the South Seas in 1931, and The Italian Straw Hat (April 2, 8 p.m., Casa Loma 1), a 1927 gem considered one of the most sophisticated French films of the late silent era. The bill is rounded out by Varieté (April 3, 8 p.m., Innis Town Hall), a German expressionist film from 1925 that resonates with audiences to this day.

And those in need of a chuckle might like to head to 1000 Laffs: Playmates (April 1, 4 p.m., Fox Theatre), which is a collection of comic shorts featuring the likes of Fatty Arbuckle, Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.

Now in its third year, the silent film fest is likely to benefit from interest generated by the recent success of The Artist, the 2011 silent movie that just swept the Oscars, and Hugo, a cinematic homage to the power of silent cinema.

Toronto Silent Film Festival, various venues. To April 3. Tickets $10 – $20.