Editor's note: updated with Thom Cardwell's corrected title.

We mentioned the other day that the Philadelphia Film Festival would be continuing its tradition this year of having a series of Evening with the Curators events running up to the launch of the fest. We also mentioned that we'd be attending one, and indeed we did so, last night at the Philadelphia Art Alliance in Center City. Speaking at the event were the executive Development Director (oops!) of the Philadelphia Film Society, Thom Cardwell, and festival programmers/curators Scott Johnston (festival of independents, which focuses on local films), Michael Enright (animation), Michael Lerman ("a little of everything"), Jennifer Steinberg (documentary), and Lewis Tice (Danger After Dark). Veterans of Philadelphia Film Festivals past may be surprised to see Lewis Tice associated with Danger After Dark, instead of former Phillyist interview subject Travis Crawford. We're not sure what the story is with that, but we'll be sure to do our best to find out. Thankfully, Tice seems like a nice enough fellow, and it looks like he's put together a pretty entertaining schedule for DAD, although of course we'll have to wait until we've actually seen the films to make a final decision on that score.

There weren't just curators at the event, either; some of the filmmakers were in the audience, as well. In fact, this Phillyist sat next to Benjamin Herold, the director of First Person (a documentary wherein Philadelphia public school students turned the cameras on themselves and took a long, uncompromising look. Herold has since started a scholarship fund for the kids; one of the parties during the festival will be a fundraiser for the scholarship, and will be attended by Lisa Nutter). And it wasn't all just talking. First up, we were treated to an early screening of the festival trailer, which was produced entirely by Philadelphia students this year, and is pretty entertaining—which is good, because we're probably going to see it about 20 times before the festival is over.

After the trailer, we got a quick overview of the festival this year—there are ten world premieres, many national premieres, and this is the first time that both the opening and closing films will be documentaries—then each of the curators got to talk a little bit about the stand-out films in their sections. Next they covered some of the parties and other events during the festival, answered some questions... and then totally spilled the beans on the Mystery Film. Seriously, we're 99% sure we know what it is, thanks to the hints they dropped. We haven't gotten our press passes to the fest yet, so we don't want to piss them off by actually blogging the title, but we don't see the harm in passing on to you the hints they gave us that led us to our conclusion:

It's a risk-taking comedy that was a big hit at Sundance, and it stars Ben Kingsley.

One of the first films they highlighted was the opening night film, a documentary about a travelling group of singing senior citizens called Young@Heart. This one sounded pretty dull and mawkish to us, but the documentary programmer said she thought the same thing at first, and even made someone else screen it for her, but when she finally watched it, she really loved it. She said it also even touched the tiny, shrivelled hearts of the jaded people who saw it at Sundance, so it must be good!

There are a lot of fascinating documentaries this year, and not just in the section explicitly set aside for documentaries; they're spread over several of the different festival sections, and many look quite fascinating. The programmers highlighted fun documentaries like The Pixar Story, Passion and Power: The Technology of Orgasm, and Eleven Minutes (which follows Project Runway's Jay McCarroll as he tries to take over the world), as well as tough, serious documentaries like Join Us (which is about the power of suburban cults). There are also a whole boatload of interesting local-themed docs, like In a Dream, which is a candid, shocking look at local artistic couple Isaiah and Julia Zagar, directed by their son, Jeremiah Zagar. Scott Johnston said the film is so harrowing you will want to leave the theater, but Jennifer Steinberg quickly assured us that it's also very good. Then there's the "frank, prophetic" Land of Confusion, another shocking work from a local Philadelphia filmmaker, documenting what happened when he was shipped off to Iraq. Finally, there's Dust, a scientific, philosophical documentary about... dust. It may sound like a boring subject, but Steinberg says it's utterly fascinating, and funny, because it's put together in a completely humorless fashion by German filmmakers.

Of course, there are plenty of non-documentaries, too. Programmer Michael Lerman picked out the Dadaist The Sun Also Rises (no relation to the book) from the World Focus section as his favorite this year, but also highlighted films like the Japanese court drama I Just Didn't Do It, the lush popcorn film Blood Brothers, and the Spielbergian California Dreamin', which he predicted would be the surprise audience hit (although an audience member who'd seen this film at another festival said it goes on forever, so keep that in mind). Lerman also grabbed the mike during Tice's presentation on the Danger After Dark films to point out that the superhero film Mirageman is the best action film he's seen in 10 years; it's humorous, accessible, loaded with amazing martial arts, and yet at the same time it's an homage to French New Wave. Now we're even more interested to see it than we were already!

Speaking of Danger After Dark—the most popular section of the festival—it's been expanded this year and includes 19 films from 11 countries, two of which are world premieres. Other DAD films highlighted were the Japanese pop gangster film from the '60s, Like a Shooting Star; the weird hybrid film Pistoleros, which is a Spaghetti Western/Robert Rodriguez homage filmed in Copenhagen by a Chilean-born, Danish-raised filmmaker named Shaky Gonzalez; and Eye in the Sky, a Mission: Impossible-type film from Hong Kong that's filmed like 24.

Besides the films, there will also be plenty of parties, including the particularly interesting-sounding Eleven Minutes Extravaganza, which will take place at the Fels Planetarium in the Franklin Institute, and include a Jay McCarroll fashion show and a performance by the Martha Graham Cracker Cabaret!! (Johnston pointed out that four out of five people can't handle the planetarium the first time they see it, and six out of five people can't handle Martha Graham Cracker the first time they see her.) Keep in mind that they're still arranging a lot of the parties and events that will occur during the festival, and that a brochure containing information about all of them will be going out on the festival's opening night.

We'd like to leave you with this thought, which deeply amused documentary programmer Jennifer Steinberg: the sponsor for the screening of Stranded: I've Come From a Plane That Crashed in the Mountains, a film about the plane crash so memorably chronicled in the film Alive, is Caviar Assouline.

If our Evening with the Curators sounded like fun to you, keep in mind you still have one more chance to attend: the final Evening takes place Thursday, March 27 at 7 p.m. at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute.

Photo of some lovely looking caviar by Flickr user Tanya !