New York's other film festival -- the one named after the fashionable Tribeca nabe, but actually unfolds all over Lower Manhattan -- returns for its 12th edition tonight, opening with the rock doc Mistaken For Strangers, a portrait of The National directed by the roadie brother of the band's lead singer. The subsequent eleven days of screenings, events and panel discussions will be just as eclectic, as Tribeca continues its mission to serve as the funky, cool little sibling to the older and more respectable New York Film Festival that unspools every year at the uptown (and upscale) Film Society of Lincoln Center. For the full schedule, visit the festival's online headquarters. In the meantime, here are some of the trends to watch for at this year's TFF.

The New York Film Festival turns 50 this year and is appropriately throwing itself one heck of a birthday bash. The golden anniversary celebration kicks off tonight with the world premiere of Ang Lee's Life of Pi, an adaptation of the best-selling novel that ranks among the fall season's big Oscar hopefuls. Over the next two weeks (the festival runs from September 28 to October 14) a plethora of big-ticket films and events will be unspooling at the festival's headquarters at Lincoln Center on New York's Upper West Side. You can visit the official NYFF website for the full schedule and ticket information. In the meantime, we've gone through the festival line-up (and have even seen a few of the movies) to highlight some of this year's key titles.

Shot almost two years ago, bumped from various release dates and tucked away at the end of this summer like a neglected stepchild, the new bike messenger thriller Premium Rush (yes, you read that right -- a bike messenger thriller) turns out to be the season's most nimble and purely enjoyable popcorn flick. The Avengers might have a gazillion superheroes kicking ass, Prometheus might have dazzling sci-fi spectacle and The Dark Knight Rises might have Anne Hathway in a form-fitting catsuit, but Premium Rush possesses something all those movies lack: sheer, exhilarating speed.

Okay, maybe "tackles" is a slight exaggeration. Here was the situation: In a massive auditorium at the Jacob Javits Center, a really idiotic woman got up to ask a question. While everyone else had somewhat interesting queries for Jared Padalecki (presumably the hero), Derek Mears (Jason) and producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form, one woman was clearly there only because of the dreaminess that is Padalecki (and no... it wasn't me. I swear). She stood in front of a crowd of fans who had just enthusiastically cheered for the very brutal and somewhat impressively disgusting first five minutes of Friday the 13th that were screened and admitted she wasn't a horror fan. This caused Mears to faux-storm off the panel and Padalecki to chase after him, physically stop him from running off and calm him down. It was much more hysterical than it sounds.

This October, after 58 years and three different TV shows, the world will finally get a feature-length film about Japanese pop-culture icon Astro Boy. The computer-generated spectacle has been in the works for three years, and features top-notch animation as well as an all-star voice cast. And it is going to fail miserably. We don't want it to, because the footage shown at this past weekend's New York Comic-Con was visually impressive, but it will, because it has too many things working against it. Which is too bad, because you'd think that a movie about a boy who's also a superhero robot would do great, right? Yeah, sadly, it won't. Wanna know why? Read on.

So I mostly went to the Warner Brothers screening (which consisted of Watchmen, Friday the 13th and Terminator: Salvation) to see Terminator footage (okay, and to stare at Jared Padalecki for a while). And when we were told they were showing the Watchmen intro footage that they'd shown to the press, I sighed -- not because it wasn't awesome (it was), but because I'd already seen it and was hoping I'd at least get a little something else. I'm greedy like that. And very impatient. But then the teeming masses were informed that we'd get a little bit extra... that no one had seen before. Then, all of a sudden, I was on the edge of my seat.

McG is certainly an unusual person. I wrote "insane" in big letters in my notebook, and underlined it, but I think it is actually enthusiasm. Anyway, he helmed the most rip-roaring panel that I attended this weekend at Comic-Con. He was in the biggest room, with a hugely critical crowd presenting eight minutes of his take on the Terminator franchise just days after the Christian Bale rant leaked out all over the internet and basically made it look like an out of control set. But McG strutted out in front of the masses who had waited hours on line to see this panel (OK, and Watchmen too) and right out of the gate started talking about why he wanted to make this movie, and when a bit of feedback interrupted his tale and an audience member shouted, "that's fucking unprofessional," he laughed it off, and said simply, "I'm good." At least this wild and unpredictable director who riled the crowd by calling Christian Bale at home via cell phone (Bale's wife answered and told McG he was crazy... he readily agreed), plucked a member of the audience out to ask his question on stage simply because he was wearing a Cyberdyne T-shirt and him screaming to the projectionist that the trailer had "better be loud" got this girl in the mood to see how Skynet takes over the world.