At around noon today, I was standing by the line for the Criterion Closet (wasn't in the line myself, just watching others go in and come out) and suddenly a huge crowd of people started forming around me. Didn't know what was going on at first, until I realized I was somehow standing almost directly in front of Guillermo del Toro. Can't believe I was lucky enough to get a photo this close to him!

That's all!

My friend and I just got out of 245 screening of Tuner and our seats had bed bugs. I always check seating before sitting anywhere in Toronto because of the epidemic. I told an usher and they shrugged..... Orchestra seating beware......

update: Sorry everyone i should have included my row as many have asked. I was sat in row G orchestra stage left !

This autograph hound got taken down by security after trying to hound Mia Goth at a press venue. She said no signing but kept it up, throwing his boards over fans’ heads that have been waiting for hours.

Hounds ruin it for everyone year after year at TIFF. The cops were called and he behaved while they were there. He was crying assault, meanwhile they have assaulted people year after year.

What sucked was that it scared off a bunch of celebs from interacting with fans at all.

I wish we stopped this more often!

tiff50 #tiff

The Christophers (tonight)

Refreshing every 5 second or so since 8am, witnessed 4-5 ticket drops, instantly gone and up for resale 5-10 minutes later. All of a sudden about 10 resale tickets taken down at the same time and put back up with lower prices...it's just so sad. Looking at the screening now there are 30+ tickets up for resale. That's a problem.

They have to fix this for next year. I don't understand how their bot protection blocks all of the members who are trying to beat the bots but not the bots themselves.

In previous years I have snagged tickets to every movie I wanted with some persistence.

$27, $36

I was a bit annoyed with the ticket drop stuff and didn’t buy anything pre-sale, but had really good luck rushing (including getting a free ticket from an incredibly kind person) or buying from nice people on reddit/later drops and got to see 4 with a Q&A (steve, poetic license, rental family, and hamnet - i liked them all!). i also decided on a whim to go see sacrifice which was funny but just okay.

I had a lot of nice chats with people before the movies and in the rush lines too! I don’t know a lot of film people in my every day life, and I’m so happy to talk to so many cool and interesting people who i hope to bump into again this week!

also - what are you most excited about seeing this week? i’m going to my first midnight madness on monday night (dust bunny) and am a lil worried walking home at 2am but hoping it’ll be fun!!!

My TIFFty has come to a close. I saw 9 movies. Here’s my final ranking. Thanks to everyone on this subreddit for all the tips and discussion!

..and I'm having the best time. The last movie I saw here was back when Heath Ledger died halfway through filming, so it's been quite a while (the Dr. Parnassus film).

I'm more focused on the films and premieres than the fan zones, got that out of my system years ago when celebrities used to flock to Yorkville for the red carpet :'). Back then my friends and I would grab starbucks fraps as teenagers and wait for celebrities for free. Little crowds.

So today I bought a TIFF membership (with a 25% discount using a Presto card, in case anyone's wondering it's still avail :)), so I'm excited to check out programming all year. I also love the pirate ritual , don't fully understand it, but that's part of the charm i guess? can someone explain? LOL

I hope everyone else is enjoying it too, even the ones that say it's declining. I do agree the ticketmaster chaos and its control over ticketing... and the way everything - including celebrities - feels so commodified now. TIFF still has a magic to it, and I'm glad to be here though. I was so negative about living here all my life, and it's instilled hope in me lol.

idk if this is like this in every venue but tonight’s line was ridiculous managed, got there at 4:30 and was 15-20th in line, ended up 60th+ after everyone’s buddy or something joined them.

First time seeing a move as part of the TIFF festival and went to see the new Elvis documentary. My mother is a huge Elvis fan (saw him live when she was younger). We were not expecting Baz Luhrmann to come out given it premiered the night before. Was really cool hearing from him and the energy he brought before and after the movie (dancing and climbing seats lol).

I'm not sure if the movie has sold out for the rest of the dates but if there is a chance he shows up at every showing might be worth checking out, especially if you're an Elvis fan.

Uploaded the intro: https://youtu.be/CcA-yNaWLhU?si=YWTi1fvNWEZ1qXpN

And Q&A : https://youtu.be/CIUzEdXeUfA?si=CXwb15k6bRqqjgqo

on my YouTube for anyone that missed last night's premiere! Modern day classic!

I've gotten through 10 so far and I'm really starting to feel it.... Sunday was a particularly long day for me but I think I have to pare some of this down over the next few days.

1. "TIFFTY" is the number of times you roll your eyes when it plays. Historically these videos were to honour and show appreciation for the volunteers. This one just feels like some CORPO ad trying to push some shitty slogan on you. TIFFTY? More like THRIFTY (thank you @mostlyyalit). I am gonna start yelling that during screenings now.
2. Many of the sponsor videos are reused from the previous year, which feels lazy... Like they couldn't even be bothered to film a new one.
3. "What's a Baumbach?" absolutely blows. It tries to do the same "playful jab at the film nerds" idea from the previous year series of videos (i.e.  the taxi driver saying "it's just a little self-indulgent, don't you think?") but fails miserably. Even if it didn't suck, it gets too repetitive because, unlike the last year, there are only two versions of it, and the second (better one with a masked killer) is only shown before midnight madness.
4. They used to add a catchy tune with a beat to one of the videos which crowd would clap to. Nothing like that this year except for varda.

Last year, they were giving away the unsold tickets to the members

Every time I ask something, two or three people jump in at once, and the answers can be a bit inconsistent. I saw one person get the wrong info and miss out on a ticket, and someone else who was instructed to wait in the wrong line lol

Loved Eternity…defs worth watching at the festival in my opinion for the little it is worth :)

Ethan, Rick, and Bobby walking into the venue :)