Time to gear up, people: the 16th Philadelphia Film Festival starts tomorrow! As we did last year, Phillyist is planning plenty of coverage, mostly taking the form of film festival diary entries from various staff members (including, of course, yours truly, whose schedule can be seen here, in case you're interested). But what's going on this year, and what should you look forward to? Well, we're glad you asked. Let's pick through the overview press release, shall we?

This year the festival has "more full-length feature films and more special presentations than ever before." That means 299 films over two weeks, including "149 feature films, 10 International Masters films, 37 World Focus films, 5 Spanish and Latin American Cinema films, 6 films from Cinema of the Muslim Worlds, 10 films from the Festival of Independents presented by DIVE, 18 in The Documentary Tradition, 16 films in the Danger After the Dark series and 5 films in the Asian Gangsters sidebar." Venue-wise, they've added a few new places: the National Constitution Center in Old City and the Bryn Mawr Film Institute in (you guessed it!) Bryn Mawr. They also point out that "this year’s festival is about Philadelphia" with "several films made in and around Philadelphia with actors, producers and directors from Philadelphia." Sounds like Phillyist's kind of festival! Some of the Philly-centric events include a special screening of The Philadelphia Story presented by author and critic Camille Paglia; and Jayne Mansfield’s The Burglar (shot in and around Philly and A.C.), presented by author of Filmadelphia, Irv Slifkin. We're also looking forward to The Curse of William Penn, a movie about why Philly's sports franchises have such bad luck.

Of course, there's plenty of exciting-looking screenings in the festival that have nothing to do with Philadelphia, like the multiple Disney cartoon anthologies; the latest surreal anime from Satoshi Kon, Paprika; a remake of a Brian DePalma film about murderous conjoined twins called Sisters; a Pakistani zombie film called Hell's Ground; a Spanish sci-fi thriller starring Timothy Hutton called The Kovak Box; a documentary about the space race called In the Shadow of the Moon; and (one of our most anticipated films) a documentary about a video game competition called King of Kong. And that's just scratching the surface! Take a look through the program, there's all kinds of great stuff.

Keep in mind, however, that some screenings have already been added, cancelled, and moved around, so you should definitely keep an eye on the website for the latest updates. Speaking of the website, it's all tricked out the same way it was last year, which means you can use it to help you schedule the festival, see what other people think about the films, rate and review the films yourself, and even blog about them.

Oh, and hang onto your ticket stubs, passes, and badges! Show them at various cool places in University City and you can get 20% off your purchases. Check out this pdf for the details.

Finally, remember to eat and stay hydrated, and happy festival to you all!

Image Courtesy of Philadelphia Film Society