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TIFF 2010 Survival Guide: Making the Most of TIFF
The Toronto International Film Festival is pretty much a huge deal, whether or not you bother going to the movies. In the days running up to the fest, we’ll try to help you survive it.
Illustration by Brian McLachlan/Torontoist.
Film festivals can be intimidating. And TIFF, with its three hundred films over eleven days, can be especially daunting. Unless you are some sort of robot or sorcerer, you can’t possibly see everything. And that’s okay. But we’ve got some handy-dandy tips to make the whole experience more worthwhile.
Whether you’re seeing five or fifty films, it’s nice to draw from a variety of programs and genres. Not only are you more likely to happen across something new and exciting, but you can spare your brain the stress of struggling with dense, challenging films all day. Break up those screenings of Essential Killing and Uncle Boonmee with the new Michael Winterbottom comedy, Fubar II, or the 3-D whimsy of Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Schedule a Mavericks or Canada First! feature into that block of Real to Reel docs. If you can, try and see a movie at the Lightbox. Because it’s new and shiny and really quite impressive. Cast your net wide. To help you out, we’ve been compiling lists of some programme highlights as they’ve been announced. Check out our cheat sheets for the Contemporary World Cinema, Midnight Madness, Canadian content, Docs, and Galas & Special Presentations.
With a little bit of prep, seeing the films you want is fairly easy. Thankfully, TIFF’s website (though it tends to lag) can help you streamline this. Even better is tiffr (which we reported on recently) a third-party website that has proved invaluable for easily putting your schedule together. (Or, if you’re a Luddite, you can always use a pencil and paper.) If you’re purchasing single tickets, don’t pull your hair out. While galas and higher-profile events sell out, most screenings still have tickets available until the day of.
Part of the fun of film festivals is seeing bigger movies a few weeks before they come out in multiplexes. That way you can offer your opinion and people will be like “How do you know?” and you can say “Well, I caught it at TIFF,” and you’ll look like a real smarty-pants. But the problem is precisely that you’ll be able to see these films in multiplexes in a few weeks. And for cheaper. Look: we’d all like to see Easy A a week before it comes out. After all, Emma Stone is a total hot babe and everything. But you’re better served seeing something that won’t hit theatres for a while, if it all.
While this comes as no surprise to festival veterans, it’s handy to know who selected the film that you’re seeing. Check the TIFF program book or website to see who wrote the programming notes for a given film, which is usually a good sign of who selected it. You’ll soon be able to know which programmers your tastes align with, as well those with whom you don’t see eye-to-eye. Our favourites: Steve Gravestock (Canadian Features, Scandinavia), Noah Cowan (Future Projections, USA, Europe), and Colin Geddes (Midnight Madness, USA, Europe, Asia).
This is good advice in a literal sense. (Don’t commit ritual suicide during the film festival for some reason, please.) But more generally, try and pace yourself. Don’t plan for a 9 a.m. screening when you’re up until 2 a.m. the night before with a hootin’ and hollerin’ Midnight Madness crowd. If you’re one of the maniacs seeing fifty movies during the Fest, make sure to grab naps, pack some Visine, and schedule in a little time to grab post-screening drinks with fellow filmgoers. And it’s hard, but make sure to eat decently well. Popcorn and root beer is not a meal.