The time has once again come for most equally feared and anticipated part of my annual work calendar: the Toronto International Film Festival. This will be my eleventh festival. My very first came back in 2002 – when I bought a pass to all the Galas with money that my parents had intended to be used to pay for books during my first year of university. A decade, I’ve gone from spectator to TIFF staff member to press when a friend told me to apply for an internship at Indiewire, which ended up obviously working out and now I’m embarking on my seventh year here with them. So, yes, my relationship to this festival has drastically changed. What was once a fun part of my first week back at university has turned into one of the socially and professionally eventful times of the year, and I’ll admit it’s always a horrendously stressful lead-up. The 300+ film lineup is impossible to negotiate and you know going in that you’re going to end up not seeing half of what you want to. And I also have the added insanity that is having a film festival in your hometown. Private and professional social worlds collide and all of a sudden everyone you’ve ever met is in a 20 block radius. But in the end it always somehow comes together without catastrophe. So far.
Anyway, so check in at Indiewire.com (and if I and some other contributors of the blog have time, here), for 11 days of pretty intensive coverage of everything TIFF. And wish me luck.
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