egun by Robert DeNiro (you've probably heard of him) and producer Jane Rosenthal, the TriBeCa Film Festival (TFF) is entering its 8th season (they grow up so fast) and runs from April 23rd to May 4th. Though it doesn't have the glitz of Cannes, the snow of Sundance, or the audience involvement of Toronto, it does have lower Manhattan, and that's hard to beat. Also, TFF offers a frequently engaging and diverse line-up of fiction and documentary from around the world. Tickets are affordable and, unlike many of its more-talked-about brethren, highly attainable. With over 120 films to choose from, you've got some difficult decisions to make. To make your choices easier, here are some of TFF '08's highlights.

Somers Town
Director Shane Meadows scored big with last year's skinhead coming of age piece (and BAFTA Best Picture winner), This is England. He returns with the presumably lighter Somers Town. It follows the London friendship between runaway Tomo (This is England star, Thomas Turgoose) and Marek (Piotr Jagiello), the son of a proletarian immigrant. Urban adventures ensue as the boys cope with childhood strife and girl issues. Will there be skinheads? Probably not this time (though you never know). Will there be culture clashes? Perhaps.

The Caller
Frank Langella has been on fire lately. He followed a solid supporting role in Good Night and Good Luck with a scene-stealing appearance in Superman Returns. More recently, he drew raves for playing an aging writer in Starting Out in the Evening and President Nixon in the Broadway production of Frost/Nixon. He has since reprised the latter role for an in-the-can film adaptation. In The Caller Langella stars as an executive that hires a detective (Elliot Gould) to help him expose corporate iniquity. It's a thriller in the vein of The Insider and Michael Clayton. Mind-fucking and sharp barbs should abound. Langella can't miss and Gould is better than the self-parodying shtick that's been paying his bills for the last several years.

Baby Mama
Surrogacy has become a cinema trend as of late (you probably remember a recent film about an eloquent teenaged mother). Opening the fest, Baby Mama, follows a barren (is that word socially acceptable?) 37 year-old executive, played by Tina Fey (30 Rock, Saturday Night Live), and her quest for a child. She finds a slovenly surrogate in Amy Poehler (Blades of Glory, Saturday Night Live) who moves into her posh, OCD'ed abode and wreaks zany (yes, I wrote "zany") havoc. With help from Sigourney Weaver, Dax Shepard (Employee of the Month), Romany Malco (40 Year Old Virgin, Weeds), and the underused Maura Tierney (ER), Baby Mama could rise above its familiar Odd Couple-meets-Juno premise. As a bonus, Fey has a track record for circumventing expectations (see Mean Girls).