Score cards ready?

Set to begin this Thursday, the Toronto International Film Festival will show 249 feature films and 63 shorts from 64 countries over 10 days. Now in its 33rd year, the annual festival comes at an especially trying time for the independent film business. With specialty films performing poorly at the box office and a number of key distributors recently closing their doors, the picture for filmmakers, producers and sales agents is looking particularly troubling this year.

In addition to its film market, Toronto is, of course, known as an important launching pad/whistle stop for movies on the long trail of the Hollywood awards season. Last year, for example, four of the five eventual best picture nominees for the Academy Award had their North American premiere at the festival. And for the last 10 years, the winner of the best foreign-language Oscar has had its North American premiere in Toronto.

This year’s festival looks thin on the sort of big studio Oscar hopefuls like last year’s “Atonement” or “Michael Clayton.” Rather, the festival may provide a kickoff for more strategic campaigns, in particular for best actress. Keira Knightley in “The Duchess,” Anne Hathaway in “Rachel Getting Married,” Sally Hawkins in “Happy-Go-Lucky,” Michelle Williams in “Wendy and Lucy,” and Dakota Fanning in “The Secret Life of Bees” could all get a major boost from a warm reception.

Each year at festivals such as Toronto, programmers and journalists alike struggle to find a common thread in the wide array of films being shown. Recently, films about the war in Iraq have dominated this conversation.

While Toronto is certainly hosting its share of war-themed movies this year (including “The Lucky Ones” and “The Hurt Locker”), programmers point to other through lines for the festival.

From the documentary selections, festival Co-Director Cameron Bailey highlights the films “Food, Inc.,” “Upstream Battle” and “At the Edge of the World” for their interest in environmental issues. Among the fiction films, Bailey sees an increased interest in domestic issues rather than larger sociopolitical narratives, as borne out by films such as “Lyme- life” and the German-language “A Year Ago in Winter.”

“It is important for us to show a wide cross-section of cinema,” said festival Co-Director and Chief Executive Piers Handling. “We’ve always believed in that and I have very catholic tastes myself. I like everything from low culture to high culture, pop culture to very marginal, experimental materials.

“The original vision of the Toronto festival was to be inclusive in that way, to have something for everybody.”

Here is a short list of films (many of which have already screened for journalists) likely to create buzz as the festival unfolds.

“Burn After Reading”

Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen

Just as they followed up their relatively mainstream “Fargo” with the curveball of “The Big Lebowski,” the Coens move on from “No Country for Old Men” to this arch, odd pastiche of airport spy novels peppered by sly social commen- tary and an ensemble cast that includes mega-stars George Clooney and Brad Pitt. Even though it is hitting theaters only one week after it screens at the festival, four words make this a must-see: Coen brothers, new movie.

“Che”

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Screening as both two separate films and a single four-hour-plus epic, this ambitious biopic of the controversial revolutionary leader Che Guevara was probably the single most-talked-about item at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, with divisive, love-it or hate-it responses. Even the film’s biggest detractors were wowed by Benicio Del Toro’s immersive, elusive lead performance. Soderbergh remains one of the most grandly unpredictable directors working today.

“The Hurt Locker”

Directed by Kathryn BigelowHoping to buck the trend of audiences turning their back on contemporary war-themed material, Bigelow (“Point Break”) -- who has always made wildly watchable action flicks -- takes a look at an Army bomb disposal unit in Iraq. Written by Mark Boal, a previously embedded journalist, the film plays like a full-throttle, you-are-there combat picture, but there is also deft insight into the psychology of war and what it does to those who fight.

“Me and Orson Welles”

Directed by Richard Linklater

Having its world premiere in Toronto, this is the latest from Linklater, known to some as the director of “School of Rock” but beloved by others for the indie touchstone “Slacker.” Where in that continuum this British-produced film lands remains to be seen, but this look at the backstage dramas of Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre, starring Zac Efron and Claire Danes, with Christian McKay as one of the most legendary figures of theater and film, likely will be a festival standout. Whether it can find a distributor at the festival will be another issue.

“Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist”

Directed by Peter SollettFrom the production company that made “Juno” comes this adaptation of the popular young-adult novel that looks to capture lightning in a bottle for a second time. With a young, hip cast (including unlikely heartthrob Michael Cera), a percolating soundtrack and a dash of indie grit from director Sollett, all the pieces seem to be in place for this fairy-tale romance set amid NYC’s indie-rock scene.

“Rachel Getting Married”

Directed by Jonathan Demme

Demme returns to the sort of nimble, observant, human-scaled films that made his reputation before he went big-time with “The Silence of the Lambs.” Shot in a scrappy and scruffy off-the-cuff style, this tale of the buildup to a backyard wedding is a piercing and intimate look at family dynamics that features highly touted, possibly awards-competitive performances by Anne Hathaway and Rosemarie DeWitt and an increasingly rare turn by Debra Winger.

“Religulous”

Directed by Larry Charles

The director of “Borat” teams up with comedian-commentator Bill Maher to take on the topic of religion. It’s no surprise that the film is funny, but what is a shock is that it is so fair-minded, and that Maher’s questions are so genuine and probing. Charles and Maher largely avoid easy, shooting-fish-in-a-barrel laughs to take on both the faithful and nonbelievers.

“RocknRolla”

Directed by Guy Ritchie

With its droll story of London gangsters, this movie puts Ritchie squarely back in the territory that first put him on the map with “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” and “Snatch.” Following the disastrous reception to his last two films, “Swept Away” and “Revolver,” this is something of a make-or-break moment for the filmmaker now struggling to be known as something more than either Mr. Madonna or (perhaps worse) a flash-in-the-pan whose time has passed.

“Synecdoche, New York”

Directed by Charlie Kaufman

Making his directing debut, Oscar-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman creates his most inside-out, head-spinning work yet. A playwright (Philip Seymour Hoffman) creates a living theater piece that grows to the size of a city and continues for years and years, as actors take on the roles of the director and all those in his life. Sold to a distributor only well after its premiere at Cannes, this is a difficult and perplexing film, but also richly rewarding.

“The Wrestler”

Directed by Darren Aronofsky

Aronofsky follows his hugely ambitious flop “The Fountain” with an unexpectedly intimate and small-scale portrait of the dashed dreams of a down-on-his-luck former pro-wrestling star. With a central performance by Mickey Rourke -- one of the most exciting, underutilized and out-there eccentrics in what may be his last real chance at a comeback -- this is sure to get people talking.