It’s that crazy time of year again. The Toronto International Film Festival is upon us. For those who read this site but somehow don’t know, along with Cannes and Sundance, TIFF is considered one of the Top 3 film festivals in the world. Hundreds of films play the festival each year, from tiny foreign films to ambitious experiments to American indies to big Hollywood films looking for prestige and an Oscar bump. For ten days at the beginning of September, the cinematic world descends on Toronto, and lucky for me, it’s my hometown.
TIFF is a great time of year for me on two levels. The first is obvious: so many great films! The festival can be exhausting, but running around the city catching all kinds of movies is a joy. Adding to it all is the atmosphere. The people you meet in line and the energy in the auditoriums as the lights dim. For those ten days, it feels like I’ve found kindred spirits in everyone around me. It’s so easy to strike up conversations with strangers. “So, what have you seen so far?” Simple as that. Meeting folks from all over the country and the world. Talking movies with like-minded people. Getting recommendations on films to seek out in the remaining days. It all adds up to a wonderful experience.
I’ll be covering TIFF’12 here on my blog. One post per day and then a wrap-up at the end of it all. Come back for the reviews, as well as my general thoughts about the festival. There’s also a chance I’ll drop a few mini-podcast episodes with friends I pull from various screenings. We’ll see about that one. And don’t forget, you can follow my TIFF’12 adventure in real-time by following me on Twitter @CoreyAtad.
Finally, just so you all can get an idea of what I’ll be seeing at TIFF this year, I’ll post my tentative schedule. Keep in mind, this is genuinely tentative. A few films might change, and I’ll definitely be seeing more films than the ones I’ve listed here. For a more accurate, up-to-date list you can always check out my schedule on tiffr. In the meantime, though, head on past the break to check out what I’ve got on tap so far for TIFF’12.
Thursday, Sept 6
6:00pm – Jason Reitman’s Live Read of American Beauty
9:15pm – Dial M for Murder 3D (digitally restored)
Friday, Sept 7
12:00pm – Rust and Bone
3:00pm – The Gatekeepers
9:30pm – Like Someone In Love
Saturday, Sept 8
12:00pm - Frances Ha
3:15pm – The Master
9:00pm – Something In the Air
Sunday, Sept 9
11:30am - Cloud Atlas
3:45pm - Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In the House of God
Monday, Sept 10
6:00pm - Berberian Sound Studio
— Blogger Pub Meet-up —
Tuesday, Sept 11
3:00pm - To the Wonder
9:00pm - Sightseers
Wednesday, Sept 12
6:00pm - Thale
Thursday, Sept 13
6:00pm - Room 237
Friday, Sept 14
11:00am - Much Ado About Nothing
11:59pm - The ABCs of Death
As you can see, I don’t have anything schedules for the final Saturday or Sunday. This will change, and I anticipate a number of the other gaps in time during the week will be filled by more films. In fact, I already have two extra tickets that need to be exchanged. I’m guessing at this point that I’ll get to about 25 films this year, which would be my personal TIFF record, besting 2009, where I saw 24. Either way, should be a fun time, and I hope you’ll be following along with my blog coverage, as well as on Twitter.
That’s awesome!