The star power at the Toronto Film Festival is undeniable: George Clooney and Brad Pitt will be there, along with Bono, Cate Blanchett and - why not? - Michael Moore.

This is the place where major studios show off fall releases, building Oscar buzz, proving their films to critics and sometimes themselves.

Small films without distributors will emerge, and we'll cover them when they do. But for now, our eyes are on these intriguing movies screening at the festival, then definitely hitting theaters.

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THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD

This is the Pitt Western everybody's talking about, though it actually belongs to his co-star Casey Affleck. Affleck fills his face with nervous tics and not-quite-masked insecurity to portray Bob Ford, a younger guy infatuated with Jesse James. The 2-hour, 40-minute Warner Bros. movie builds slowly with literary narration lifted directly from the book upon which it's based. But it packs a punch and makes a star of the younger Affleck.

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LARS AND THE REAL GIRL

With Ryan Gosling starring and a script from "Six Feet Under" writer Nancy Oliver, what more do you need? A blowup doll named Bianca. Gosling stars as an emotionally stunted introvert who brings Bianca home and sneaks food off her plate at dinner. On the advice of a psychologist, friends and family act as if she's real. The MGM film looks like a balancing act of quirky and heartwarming - tough to pull off, but Gosling can do it.

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INTO THE WILD

Sean Penn's latest directorial effort is based on the true story of a young man who donates his life savings to charity and hitchhikes into the wilds of Alaska, where (spoiler alert!) he dies of starvation. Emile Hirsch plays Christopher McCandless in a humanistic role before his big-time star turn in the upcoming "Speed Racer" by the Wachowski siblings. The Paramount Vantage film also featured Catherine Keener and Vince Vaughn.

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NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

The Coen brothers go back to the crime thriller genre and pick a doozy of a bad guy - Spanish actor Javier Bardem. Based on a Cormac McCarthy novel, the film features Josh Brolin as a man who finds $2 million in a satchel, being pursued by Bardem and a sheriff played by (also can't go wrong here) Tommy Lee Jones. The Miramax film sets itself up as a stark and bloody modern Western.

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ACROSS THE UNIVERSE

Lots and lots of Beatles songs, crammed into the tale of a guy named Jude ("Hey Jude," get it?) and the woman he loves, Lucy. The main characters are played by Evan Rachel Wood and a British TV actor named Jim Sturgess. Expect director Julie Taymor to supply the Sony-Columbia movie with trippy visuals held together by the loosest of plots.

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asap staff reporter Ryan Pearson is ready to festival.