[944] Director's Cut: The Toronto International Film Festival Travel Guide

View from the Thompson Toronto's rooftop infinity pool. All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.

For film aficionados and movie nerds, spending a few days immersed in back-to-back screenings of the outlandish, edgy, quirky, profound, and always wholly unique offerings of an international film festival is a sacred experience. But too many film festivals are more about celebrities and their seekers preening and neck-craning than about the movies themselves. Others are so under-the-radar that they only screen third-rate features and a LOT of local talent. A movie buff might feel like Goldilocks trying to sift through the available choices for cinema-tourism: this one’s too big; this one’s too small... But the Toronto International Film Festival is just right.

Since 1976, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has been showcasing some of the best films from all over the world during its 11-day run. The festival has grown to feature 300-400 films every year, ranging anywhere from Asian arthouse horror to documentaries on life as a woman in Afghanistan, and also has included such high-profile premieres as American Beauty, Slumdog Millionaire and Precious. It is considered one of the finest and most influential film festivals in the world, yet despite its reputability it still has been able to maintain its indie integrity as a film lover’s film festival (and not a PR machine for various celebs’ latest star vehicles).

In September 2010, the TIFF unveiled their new home in the Entertainment District in the King West neighborhood, the TIFF Bell Lightbox & Festival Tower, a five-story glass-encased complex with an atrium, five theatres, two galleries, learning studios and student centers, restaurants and a lounge. The heart of the festival is here, but screenings still occur all throughout downtown Toronto.
This year the TIFF will be held September 8-18. In between screenings, be sure to explore the vast cultural offerings this sparkling city has to offer – from haute couture shopping to gritty artist enclaves, Toronto has something to appeal to all tastes … kind of like the festival itself.