The Toronto International Film Festival begins on September 6, and is currently scheduled to showcase 349 films through September 15. I’m only going to be in town for four days, so I’ve combed the schedule and picked out 15 films that I’m going to make an attempt to see during that time. I’ve purposely left films that are going to be at the New York Film Festival off this list; hopefully, I’ll be able to scratch off one or two at Telluride as well. If there’s anything I’ve glaringly missed, let me know in the comments. In alphabetical order:

Across the Universe (dir. Julie Taymor, starring Evan Rachel Wood)
Which version of Taymor’s long-troubled psychedelic musical romance based on the songs of The Beatles will Toronto audiences see? There’s still no running time listed on the film’s IMDb profile, which could mean that Sony hasn’t figured that out yet.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (dir. Andrew Dominik, starring Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck)
Okay, marketers, I give: I’ve been seduced by the gorgeousness of the latest trailer.

Battle for Haditha (dir. Nick Broomfield, starring Elliot Ruiz, Andrew McLaren)
Broomfield is best known for his tabloidy first-person docs; I missed his most recent drama, Ghosts, when it debuted at Sundance, and it seems to have vanished since. Judging by the comments on IMDB about Haditha (which is a drama based on the actual incident in Iraq), the British director is heading into a realm of controversy that’s going to make his persecution at the hands of Courtney Love look like picnic.

Cassandra’s Dream (dir. Woody Allen, starring Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor)
Control (dir. Anton Corbijn, starring Samantha Morton and Sam Riley)
See my previous commentary here and here

Elizabeth: The Golden Age (dir. Shekhar Kapur, starring Cate Blanchett and Clive Owen)
My sometime celebrity boyfriend Owen co-stars as Sir Walter Raleigh in this sequel to the Oscar-nommed Elizabeth. Blanchett reprises her role as the no-longer-so-virginal queen.

See my next nine picks after the jump.

Encounters at the End of the World (documentary, dir. Werner Herzog)
See my previous commentary here.

Juno (dir. Jason Reitman, starring Jason Bateman, Michael Cera and Ellen Page)
Early last year, I wrote a lukewarm review of Reitman’s first film, Thank You For Smoking, after seeing it at the Sundance Film Festival. The director seemed to think my review was a lot more hostile than I intended for it to be, and bitched to a colleague of mine that I had treated him unfairly. In spite of all the drama, I’m very interested to see the screenwriting debut of blogger Diablo Cody — and you know I can’t pass up a chance to ogle Michael Cera.

Lou Reed’s Berlin (documentary, dir. Julian Schnabel)
I didn’t know this film existed until earlier this week–and, in fact, IMDB doesn’t seem to be aware of it, either. But I was a great admirer of Schnabel’s semi-documentary-esque Before Night Falls, and of the two films the ex-painter has on the festival circuit this fall, I’m definitely leaning towards this over his paraplegic drama, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

Lust, Caution (dir. Ang Lee, starring Tang Wei, Joan Chen, Tony Leung)
Oh Ang Lee — you had me at “nontraditional sexual positions“!

Obscene (documentary, dirs. Neil Ortenberg and Daniel O’Connor)
Operation Filmmaker (documentary, dir. Nina Davenport)
See my previous commentary here.

Rebellion: The Litvinenko Case (documentary, dir. Andrei Nekrasov)
This doc failed to drum up much attention when it played Cannes last spring, but I was absolutely riveted by the saga of the poisoned Russian spy last fall, so no amount of shrug-worthy buzz could keep me away.

Rendition (dir. Gavin Hood, starring Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal)
I actually don’t care much about this terrorism/CIA drama from the director of the Oscar-wining Tsotsi, but people keep telling me I should. I’ll try to keep an open mind, in spite of the fact that it’s got early-season also-ran Oscar bait written all over it.

Son of Rambow (dir. Garth Jennings) 

Jennings directed videos for Pulp, R.E.M. and Blur under the pseudonym Hammer & Tongs; he also directed the film version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which I wasn’t crazy about. Still, I heard great things about this 80s period piece about school boys obsessed with Rambo at Sundance, and after missing it at that festival I’ve been trying to catch up with it ever since.