Just a heads-up that the blog will be silent today, as I’ll be traveling from New York to Los Angeles and then on to Santa Barbara, “The American Riviera,” for the 25th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

I can’t begin to tell you how impressed/excited I am by the army of writers, directors, producers, and stars — including 21 of this year’s Oscar nominees, by my count — that my friends Roger Durling (executive director) and Carol Marshall (director of publicity) have lined up for screenings, panels, and tributes over the next 12 days: producer Lawrence Bender (“Inglourious Basterds”), director Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker”), actress Emily Blunt (“The Young Victoria”), writer/producer Mark Boal (“The Hurt Locker”), actor Jeff Bridges (“Crazy Heart”), actress Sandra Bullock (“The Blind Side”), director James Cameron (“Avatar”), director Pete Docter (“Up”), actor Kirk Douglas, actress Vera Farmiga (“Up in the Air”), actor Colin Firth (“A Single Man”), writer Geoffrey Fletcher (“Precious”), writer Alex Kurtzman (“Star Trek”), producer Jon Landau (“Avatar”), producer Lori McCreary (“Invictus”), writer/director Nancy Meyers (“It’s Complicated”), actress Julianne Moore (“A Single Man”), actress Carey Mulligan (“An Education”), writer Scott Neustadter (“500 Days of Summer”), documentarians Ric O’Barry and Louie Psihoyos (“The Cove”), writer/director Todd Phillips (“The Hangover”), producer Ivan Reitman (“Up in the Air”), writer/director Jason Reitman (“Up in the Air”), producer Jonas Rivera (“Up”), actress Saoirse Ronan (“The Lovely Bones”), actor Peter Sarsgaard (“An Education”), actress Gabby Sidibe (“Precious”), actor Michael Stuhlbarg (“A Serious Man”), writer/director Quentin Tarantino (“Inglourious Basterds”), actor Stanley Tucci (“The Lovely Bones”), actor Christoph Waltz (“Inglourious Basterds”), and others. It’s nothing short of amazing.

I hear that a number of my west coast based Oscar brethren — including Pete Hammond (Notes on a Season), Steve Pond (The Odds), Kris Tapley (In Contention), Anne Thompson (Thompson on Hollywood), and Jeff Wells (Hollywood Elsewhere) — will also be in attendance, so it will be nice to catch up with them, too.

Last year’s festival was a blast, and this year’s silver anniversary edition promises to be even better, so I can’t wait to touch down!

Photo: Mickey Rourke and Francis Ford Coppola at the 2009 Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Credit: Scott Feinberg.