Toronto 2015 – Day 0.5 (Pre-Festival)

Hello Readers.

Thanks for checking out the blog where I’ll cover my adventures during the Toronto International Film Festival!

After almost 12 hours of travel (a cancelled flight, a delayed flight, an extra flight, etc.), I finally made it to Toronto.  Luckily, I never really let it get me down.  And upon arriving at the apartment I rented, any possible negative vibes were wiped clean.  The view is amazing, the apartment is adorable, and I’m less than 1/2 block from where I need to go every morning (instead of several blocks and 7 subway stops).

Films don’t start until tomorrow. Arriving a day early lets me get my bearings and truly begin to figure out what my screening schedule will be.  For the general public, screenings kick off tomorrow evening…but for press and industry folks, there are a number of screenings beginning first thing tomorrow morning.

Each day, I’ll get in line around 7am.  This allows me to pick 2 public screenings per day (but with 2 days advance notice).  Tomorrow morning (Thursday), I’ll get 2 tickets for Saturday (which I hope will include the premiere of THE DANISH GIRL…more about that in a moment).  In addition to those 2 public screenings, my pass allows me to watch as many P&I (“press & industry”) screenings as I’d like (but those can get a little stuffy with just industry folks – I like to hear and see true film lover responses…thus I upgraded my P&I pass to include the 2 public screenings per day).

I already picked up a couple tickets for Friday.  One ticket isn’t a movie at all – it’s a Charlie Rose-style Discussion in an intimate-ish auditorium with Julianne Moore.  Doesn’t that sound exciting?

Tomorrow’s first film will likely be HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAUT…and in the evening, I’ll head to the Opening Night Film & Party (courtesy of an invitation from Glenn Kiser – a director who visited Dayton for the LGBT Film Fest a few years ago).

Here are just a few films I’m really looking forward to over the next several days:

45 YEARS – directed by Andrew Haigh (we showed his incredible film WEEKEND at the Dayton LGBT Film Fest plus a traditional run at THE NEON, and I also adore his show LOOKING on HBO…and then there’s Charlotte Rampling to seal the deal)

THE DANISH GIRL (from the director of KING’S SPEECH comes a film that will likely have Eddie Redmayne back at the Oscars next year)

And of course a little something with Dame Maggie…

Stay tuned.

I’ll write each night/morning and review all the films I see each day (anywhere from 3 to 5 per day).

Thanks for stopping by,

Jonathan