Get ready for the red carpet treatment. The 25th annual Toronto International Film Festival is now officially underway. This is one of the world's most influential flick fests, a place where dreams are actualized, rocketing new careers off the launching pad. It's a time when filmmakers meet movie buffs for a riotous 10-day cinematic Bacchanalian revelry. Small films may get their only international exposure here, before slipping into "direct to video" obscurity. Audiences can dive into the vast enigma of world cinema. Others line up for the big galas and stretch limos, desperately rubbernecking for a glimpse of Tom and Nicole or Atom and Arsinee. Heck, last year we nearly had a Day of the Locust experience over American Beauty.

Much as we modest, humble Canucks may hate to admit it, the Toronto International Film Festival has infected us with roadkill, celebrity-seeking bloodlust. And why shouldn't we have it? It's like waving bloody meat under a shark's snout. They're beautiful. They're Hollywood. And they're walking down University Avenue (our version of the Croisette), blessing us with their movie star status. So enough of the tease. After all, I'm not to judge, but to observe. For those of you starving for glamour, here's just a sampling of the starry fare you're likely to see in Tinseltown North over the next 10 days:

Learn How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog, starring Kenneth Branagh and Robin Wright-Penn as a couple duking it out with their neighbour's noxious pooch. Visit The House of Mirth with (X Files') Gillian Anderson, or sample The Dish, an Aussie flick set in the outback during the Apollo mission of 1969, with Sam Neill in the starring role. There's Sexy Beast with Oscar-winner Ben Kingsley. Al Pacino will be in town to promote the world premiere of Chinese Coffee. Fans of Samuel Beckett (sorry he won't be there, he's dead), will want to catch producers Michael Colgan and Alan Moloney's cinematic tribute to the minimalist's genius. They've produced 10 films, by 10 world famous directors. Anthony Minghella's directing Kristen Scott Thomas and Alan Rickman in Play, David Mamet takes on Catastrophe and Canadians Atom Egoyan and Patricia Rozema are doing Krapp's Last Tape and Happy Days.

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