Today was the first day of my new job. It looks like a great job and I’m pretty happy to be doing something new for a while. There is one terrible side effect of the new job and that is I have to wait for holidays to build up once again. I’ll have enough holidays built up by the fall for my regular family trip but I will not have enough for neither of Toronto After Dark nor the Toronto International Film festival. I was thinking I could do Calgary, Edmonton or Vancouver but they are all shortly after TIFF and they just won’t work out either. It looks like I might be thinking of Sundance in January but I would like some other suggestions. The festival needs to be in North America and should take place sometime very late in the year or early in the new year. Any suggestions?
This discussion currently has 6 responses.
March 23, 2009
In these recessionary times, it remains to be seen if TIFF scales back some of their festival or bets the farm. They are still struggling to build that massive festival tower, which is likely churning through $$$. And capital just ‘lying around’ is pretty dry at the moment.
You’ll be missed at this years TIFF John.
March 24, 2009
I’m sorry to hear that you won’t be coming to TIFF or TADFF John!
Sundance is on my festival wish list – one day I’ll get there. Not sure what is around after that time that isn’t too much into the next year. There is of course SXSW or if into Docs, Hot Docs in Toronto but that would a long wait until next years.
March 24, 2009
Congrats on the new job John. I’m sure you won’t be missing out on TIFF this year, it’s become an elitist farce. Which is sad, because I used to love the festival, but if they don’t want regular film fans to attend anymore, I can’t support them. It’ll be interesting to see if they make any changes this year after last year’s complaints.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080912/tiff_controversy_080912/20080913?s_name=tiff2008
March 24, 2009
SXSW might not be a bad an idea. I’d also love to go to Fantasia but it would be too early also for my holidays. I’m not too big into documentaries so thats out.
Sorry to hear your not enjoying TIFF anymore. I actually had a blast this last year. Sure I’m probably biased because it was my first TIFF and I also had a really good draw so I got all my movies but I enjoyed every aspect of the fest. The lines didn’t bother me as I was often chatting with people I had met, the movies were overall good and I met a lot of cool people.
I do agree with one thing in that article. I wasn’t too happy to pay 40 bucks to see The Good, The Bad, The Weird but it was still cool to check out the Elgin and the movie was one of my favorites from last year.
I guess I should also say that I didn’t and still don’t really care about the big name flicks. If I see them at the fest then cool otherwise I’m just happy that I saw Sauna, Vinyan, Inju, and several other smaller films.
March 24, 2009
Yeah, I didn’t even mention Fantasia figuring it would be not good timing, at least for 2009. I’m still hoping to go this year. Fingers crossed.
And……. Congratulations on the new job!
March 24, 2009
I’m glad you enjoyed your first TIFF. I had a blast too back in the day. I commuted two hours each way in 2003 to volunteer my first year, then was living around the corner my second year while I was at film school. I quit the volunteering to actually see movies in 2005, 2006, and 2007, saw about 60 in total, including a few big ticket galas, but mostly smaller and unknown gems, and a few surprise hits. I saw Juno before any of the hype had been built around it, and TransAmerica long before anyone put ‘Felicity Huffman’ and ‘Oscar nomination’ in the same sentence. The History of Violence gala was unreal.
Which is why it was so sad when last year I couldn’t get tickets to any of the movies I wanted. Most of the galas were “sold out” before the single tickets even went on sale to the public, and then the box office site crashed multiple times while I was trying to put my order in. After three hours, I hit the submit button thinking I’d finally gotten my tickets, only to find out it hadn’t gone through and I was back to square one again. A lot of my friends who work the festival circuit decided not to do TIFF last year because of policy and venue changes, and the training that the replacements received must have been very rushed. I was treated rudely by at least three staff when I tried to pick up my programme book. I hope the organizers smarten up this year and revise the changes they made. I really want to champion the festival, it was one of the most dynamic events the city of Toronto had to offer, and I’ve recommended it as a must-do to all my overseas friends.