Burt Reynolds will present the Screen Actors Guild's life achievement award to Charles Durning at the SAG Awards on Jan. 27. Denis Leary will introduce the filmed tribute to the veteran actor being saluted for his career and humanitarian accomplishments.

Reynolds and Durning are longtime friends, while Leary and Durning starred in "Lakeboat" and later played son and father on the TV show "Rescue Me."

TNT and TBS will simulcast the film and TV awards ceremony, which has the stamp of approval from the Writers Guild and means lots of star participation, at 8 p.m. Jan. 27. Presenters will include: Ruby Dee, Zac Efron, Emile Hirsch, Kate Hudson, Matthew McConaughey, SAG president Alan Rosenberg, Denzel Washington, Vanessa Williams and Chandra Wilson. (Barbara Vancheri, Post-Gazette movie editor)

No matter what happens in Hollywood, the Pittsburgh Film Office will hold its annual fund-raising gala on Oscar night Feb. 24 at Heinz Field.

"Lights! Glamour! Action!" will take place with or without a televised Academy Awards. If the show doesn't happen or is changed in some way, the party will proceed "as a way to celebrate the successful film industry in southwestern Pennsylvania," Dawn Keezer, director of the film office, said in a press release.

As usual, there will be a "So You Want to be in Pictures?" pre-party event for patrons at J. Verno Studios on the South Side. It will start at 6 p.m. Friday and include complimentary appetizers, desserts, beer and wine.

VIP reception on Oscar night begins at 6 p.m. at Heinz Field, with the black-tie gala at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $500, $250 or $125, with the latter reduced to $75 if six or more tickets are purchased. Go to www.pghfilm.org or call 412-261-2744 for tickets or more information. Last year's event grossed more than $120,000 for the film office. (Vancheri)

The Hollywood outfit that loves to list the best in American cinema plans to pick the top 10 movies in 10 genres, including science fiction, animation, mysteries and Westerns. The American Film Institute announced Thursday that its annual top-100 list will be broken into the series of 10-best rankings. The other genres are fantasy, gangster tales, sports flicks, romantic comedies, courtroom dramas and epic films.

The institute began its yearly lists 10 years ago with a top-100 rundown of best American movies, which placed "Citizen Kane" at No. 1. Since then, the group has done lists on such movie matters as best film quotes, thrillers, love stories, comedies and stars. The results of this year's top-10 lists will be revealed on a CBS special in June. (Associated Press)

The field of potential Oscar nominees for Best Foreign Language film has been narrowed to nine. It will be winnowed to five come Tuesday, when nominations for the 80th Academy Awards are announced.

These films emerged from a field of 63: "The Counterfeiters," Austria; "The Year My Parents Went on Vacation," Brazil; "Days of Darkness," Canada; "Beaufort," Israel; "The Unknown," Italy; "Mongol," Kazakhstan; "Katyn," Poland; "12," Russia; and "The Trap," Serbia.

The Academy Awards will be presented Feb. 24 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. (Vancheri)

Warner Bros. Pictures, obviously hoping to add "Oscar-nominated" to its ads and commercials, plans to re-release "Michael Clayton" on Friday. The legal thriller will return to theaters in 1,000 North American locations days after the Academy Award nominations. The movie could pick up nods for stars George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton along with director-writer Tony Gilroy.

The film stars Clooney as a lawyer who's become a "fixer," cleaning up the messes of others. It was a favorite on critics' top 10 lists for 2007. (Vancheri)

Moviegoers who cannot wait until May 9 to get a look at the new supercharged car in "Speed Racer," can get a sneak peek during the 2008 North American International Auto Show in Detroit this weekend.

The Mach 5 will be on display for the general public through Monday at the auto show at COBO Center in Detroit. The car will star alongside Emile Hirsch as Speed, Christina Ricci as his girlfriend, Matthew Fox as the masked Racer X, and Susan Sarandon and John Goodman as Mom and Pops Racer.

The live-action "Speed Racer," directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, will arrive in theaters May 9. (Vancheri)