TORONTO - Will Brad run into Jen? Do the Coen brothers have another Oscar winner on their hands? And can geeky heartthrob Michael Cera keep up his streak of cinematic hits that have included "Juno" and "Superbad"?
The 10-day movie extravaganza known as the Toronto International Film Festival gets underway Thursday, unspooling 312 films from around the world, spanning everything from experimental short flicks to blockbuster Hollywood productions.
"The exciting part is being able to meet the directors and the stars that come to the premieres, and getting a chance to actually ask them questions about the movies they make," said John Ricchiuto, a Toronto resident who has attended the festival for several years.
Celebrities will often set aside time after screenings to take questions from the audience, but there are plenty of other ways to cross paths with the famous.
Rosemary Dale of Toronto has seen Sean Penn at least three times, in hotel lobbies and on the street.
For her, however, star power is not the main draw.
"It isn't a reason why I take in the festival," she said, noting that the diverse slate of films from around the world draw her back every year.
"I like the ones that have a very strong message, that cause me to think or make me very angry," she said.
This year a variety of films are bound to touch the nerves of viewers, including the controversial biopic "Fifty Dead Men Walking," about a security agent who infiltrated the Irish Republican Army. The man whose book inspired the film has questioned its authenticity and threatened to protest the premiere.
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Penn narrates "Witch Hunt," a documentary about a small town that became the target of law enforcement officials cracking down on child molesters -- imprisoning many locals who were apparently innocent.
The festival kicks off with "Passchendaele," the epic First World War drama from Canada's Paul Gross.
Gross hopes the $20-million film receives a strong response from festival audiences, which could help it secure international distribution deals.
"It's a little hard to say to somebody, you're going to make a ton of money at this," Gross said, explaining how he managed to persuade investors to participate in the lavish production.
"We were extremely honest. We said 'Well, we might make money and (we) might not -- it's not the oil patch.' But if the movie strikes, then it will be very beneficial for everybody concerned."
Some high-profile celebrities seem to have the riskiest films at the fest.
"Pride and Glory," a crime drama starring Colin Farrell and Edward Norton, was originally scheduled to hit theatres last spring before it was bumped into 2009, and then yanked back to the fall -- often the sign of a troubled project.
Joel and Ethan Coen will be back at the festival with "Burn After Reading." The film has the tough job of living up to "No Country for Old Men," which left the festival last year with loads of buzz and went on to win best picture at the Academy Awards.
After wowing audiences in "Juno" last year, Cera will be back in Toronto with "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist."
Other stars could reap the benefits of festival exposure, including one-time heart-throb Mickey Rourke. He has struggled to regain the attention from his heyday in the mid-'80s when the steamy "Nine 1/2 Weeks" topped the box office. Rourke's performance as a retired professional fighter in "The Wrestler" has sparked talk of potential awards nods.
Jean-Claude Van Damme is tackling what could be his most difficult role to date, the semi-autobiographical film "JCVD." The tongue-in-cheek action flick portrays Van Damme's real-life struggle for the custody of his daughter and his eroding fame, all before he's taken hostage in a heist that tests his heroism.
Van Damme won't be at the festival (he's shooting another project), but other stars expected to grace their premieres include John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, Christopher Walken, Guy Ritchie, Zac Efron, Jack White of the White Stripes, Claire Danes, Dakota Fanning, Geoffrey Rush and Greg Kinnear.
Celebrity watchers will have their eyes focused on whether Brad Pitt, in town to plug "Burn After Reading," will cross paths with his ex Jennifer Aniston as she touts her latest, the romantic comedy "Management."
Handlers for the two will be working overtime to ensure that neither of them crosses paths in public -- a dreaded photo opportunity for the thirsty paparazzi.
Canada's recently reunited love birds Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling could walk hand-in-hand down the red carpet as she promotes her role in the post-Iraq war drama "The Lucky Ones."
On Tuesday, Tea Leoni scrapped her planned appearance for "Ghost Town," perhaps to avoid the inevitable questions about her husband, David Duchovny, who checked into rehab for sex addiction last week.
Aside from all the celeb gossip, the Toronto film festival offers up plenty of cinematic surprises, mostly because the movies that screen with major hype aren't always the ones that generate the most talk come awards season.
Last year, a rush of films themed around the Iraq war managed to capture the attention of festivalgoers and critics but flopped on their subsequent theatrical release.
This year, the buzz is around "Slumdog Millionaire," an unlikely love story about a street kid in India who winds up appearing on a local version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."
The film debuted to strong reviews at the Telluride Film Festival last week in Colorado and is being touted as this year's "Juno."
"Rachel Getting Married" is the dark tale of a dysfunctional family that could score Anne Hathaway awards recognition for her turn as a troubled young woman who comes home for her sister's wedding.
But some of the year's biggest Oscar hopefuls -- particularly Oliver Stone's much-anticipated George W. Bush biopic "W" -- will be absent, due to the fallout of the Hollywood writers strike.
The film was expected to debut at the festival but is reportedly still in post-production because the strike delayed shooting.
Viewers searching for controversy will find plenty to talk about when Bill Maher skewers organized religion in the documentary "Religulous," while the French-Canadian drama "Borderline" graphically portrays both straight and gay sex.
And the western genre gets a much-needed shot of adrenaline with "Appaloosa," which was directed by Ed Harris and co-stars Viggo Mortensen, Renee Zellweger and Jeremy Irons.
Quebec-based filmmaker Joe Balass hopes that he can turn heads with "Baghdad Twist," a short film about his family's decision to flee a Jewish community in Iraq to avoid persecution. It has already played the Amsterdam and Tribeca film festivals.
"(Toronto) is one of the top festivals ... and it's a great opportunity for Canadian filmmakers to get their work out there and known to film programmers around the world," Balass said.
"And it's definitely a film lovers' festival, so those two things work particularly well for a film like mine."
