Toronto Film Festival Faves

Paris Hilton with director Adria Petty at the TIFF screening of Paris, Not France.

What's up, Toronto?

We like to keep an eye on the film festivals for a variety of reasons. People look pretty. It feeds us with cocktail-party blather ("I really think this is a bold choice for Spike Lee."). Occasionally there are some real cinematic gems.

From the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), here are some of the flicks expected to go big beyond the maple leaf.

• The Wrestler: Original bad boy, Mickey Rourke, plays retired professional wrestler, Randy "The Ram" Robinson. The character-driven pic is directed by crazy, cool braniac Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, Pi).
• Slumdog Millionaire: An impoverished Indian teen becomes a contestant on the Hindi version of "Who Wants to be A Millionaire?" Why does he do the show? Not to win the rupees; to win his lady love.
  
• The Hurt Locker: Set in Iraq, this action movie follows an elite Army bomb squad as they're plunged into deadly urban combat.

Other films in focus: Jennifer Aniston plays an art dealer with a weird-o suitor in the rom-com Management; Anne Hathaway stars as an estranged daughter in Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married; Paris Hilton finds herself scrutinized, and supported (!), in Paris, Not France.