It’s official: after some swirling rumors for a good while, Robert Redford’s Lions for Lambs will open this year’s AFI Fest, which kicks off November 1 and runs through November 11 in Los Angeles.

AFI Fest, really, given the wide national release date of the movie (November 9, from MGM) and the boffo publicity its feting will garner, particularly if Cruise and new BFF David Beckham hit the premiere together with their wives in tow. In fact, though, this “get” wasn’t that difficult to discern; when Lions pushed back its release from October, this pairing seemed a natural launch, actually.