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I'm in Savannah, Georgia to spend a week as a guest blogger for the Savannah Film Festival, an eight-day fest hosted in the historic Southern town by the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). [Read my entries in the "Voices from the Fest" section on the festival website.] As the town prepares to kick off the 12th annual festivities with the Iraq film, or rather post-Iraq film, The Messenger, I'm wondering how SFF's growing success might reflect or even influence the rise of film festivals that similarly fall somewhere in between the biggies (Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, Venice) and the little guys.

For starters, a brief look at SFF's line-up and star-studded guest list. The festival begins today, October 31, with The Messenger, a Sundance entry that has Oscar possibilities but more likely will make a run at the Indie Spirit Awards. Stars Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster will be in attendance. (I will be attempting to run into them at the local Starbucks or wherever it is that Hollywood actors hang out when they visit other cities.) Another Oscar hopeful, the Emily Blunt-starring period biopic The Young Victoria, is screening the following day.

And then there are the almost certain Oscar pictures: George Clooney in The Men Who Stare At Goats; Lone Scherfig's An Education; Michael Haneke's Cannes winner The White Ribbon; Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, with star Jeremy Renner in attendance; and Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, which will bring both director Lee Daniels and his star Gabourey Sidibe to town.

Read on for more about this year's Savannah Film Festival.

When you make a list of the top septuagenarian iconic actors, Sir Anthony Hopkins has to rank very near the top. His work in films like Magic, The Bounty, Howard's End and, of course, The Silence of the Lambs has shown his tremendous depth of talent and won him many awards, including a best actor Oscar for playing the suave, sophisticated sociopath Hannibal Lector.

Lately though, his work has seemed -- how should I put it -- uninspired. It's as if he feels he's proven all he needs to prove and doesn't care to work so hard anymore. Or maybe its just his choice of films lately (like Hannibal and the equally forgettable Bad Company and Alexander) that makes me think Hopkins has decided it's okay to rest on his impressive laurels?

Whatever may be happening with Hopkins at the moment, there may be hope for the man yet because he's returning to familiar ground with his latest choice of projects. According to Production Weekly, Hopkins will re-team with frequent collaborator James Ivory and star in The City of Your Final Destination for the director. The film, based on the novel by Peter Cameron and adapted by another longtime Ivory collaborator Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, tells the story of an Iranian-born student who travels to Argentina to seek permission from a deceased author's family to write a biography of his life.

Once there, he confronts the family and by doing so forces them to take a hard look at their lives and face one of their greatest fears -- the future. Hopkins joins Omar Metwally, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Hiro Sanada and the terrific Laura Linney who are already cast in the film. This marks Hopkins' fourth time around with director Ivory. Their three previous collaborations on The Remains of the Day, Surviving Picasso and the previously mentioned Howard's End have resulted in Hopkins delivering some of the best performances of his career. Maybe this fourth go-around will inspire something in the actor and will help him return to the form that made him the icon he is today. As a fan of the man and his work, I hope so.