My 2008 TIFF Experience (1st in a series)

I was away on vacation last week so was precluded from participating in the advance TIFF order process for pass and coupon holders (which happened over the Labour Day weekend). So I was forced to navigate the arduous (and more expensive) on-line ticket order process route when the TIFF box office opened for single ticket sales this morning . This will mark my 7th straight year of attending the Toronto International Film Festival.

After spending a few frustrating hours on-line trying to order tickets first thing (starting @ 7AM this morning, the server was overloaded and calling up error screens all over the place) I finally managed to secure my ticket set for this years festival around 11:40 AM. I suppose this is still, better than waiting in a line in the hot sun outside the Toronto Life Centre box office to purchase in person!

Overall I did not fare badly and will be screening 9 films, cutting a wide swath across genres and languages. We will be attending one gala at Roy Thomson Hall to star gawk. The only title I really wanted to see that was sold out was "Hunger". I noticed a definite pattern to the sell-outs: the earlier the title appeared on the schedule, the more likely it was to be sold out (I can only presume most pass/coupon holders review the schedule chronologically and either get tired of reading or run out of coupons before getting to the end). The one danger in booking screenings toward the end of the fest is that festival fatigue can set in. Although the film-makers and/or stars are often in attendance for Q&A sessions at the first public screenings, sometimes they do not stick around until the last scheduled screenings (virtually all programmed titles receive at least once encore public screening).

In any case, here are my confirmed selections, with screening times.

Click on the titles to link to full descriptions

Sunday Sept 7

Nick and Norah's Infinite... 9:30am
Krabat 3:30pm
Of Time and the City 9:15pm

Tuesday Sept 9

Maman est chez le coiffeur 6:00pm

Thursday Sept 11

Me and Orson Welles 9:00pm

Friday September 12

Loss of a Teardrop Diamond 6:30pm

Saturday September 13

Every Little Step 9:00am
ONLY 3:15pm
Patrik, Age 1.5 9:00pm