I shudder with anticipa . . .

Forgive the stupid title. Rocky Horror was on TV the other night, and I was surprised to discover how many lines I still knew by heart. Anyway, tomorrow, July 6, is a big day for TIFF fans. Ticket packages go on sale to Visa cardholders. The website is scheduled to go live. And, because it's now been nearly two weeks since the first film titles were announced, presumably a few more press releases will be posted.

Along with several Cannes films yet to be announced, at the top of my "Most Wanted" list is Claire Denis's White Material. Last week, Peter Knegt at Indiewire published his list of "30 Films to Watch for at TIFF," which covers a lot of English-language ground. I wonder which of these will be the next Best Picture winner?

1. Amelia, directed by Mira Nair
2. Biutiful, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu
3. Brothers, directed by Jim Sheridan
4. Dear John, directed by Lasse Hallstrom
5. Green Zone, directed by Paul Greengrass
6. The Informant, directed by Steven Soderbergh
7. Love Ranch, directed by Taylor Hackford
8. Nine, directed by Rob Marshall
9. Ondine, directed by Neil Jordan
10. The Road, directed by John Hillcoat
11. A Serious Man, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
12. The Tempest, directed by Julie Taymor
13. All Good Things, directed by Andrew Jarecki
14. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, directed by Werner Herzog
15. The Box, directed by Richard Kelly
16. Crazy Heart, directed by Scott Cooper
17. Desert Flower, directed by Sherry Hormann
18. The Good Heart, directed by Dagur Kari
19. The Last Station, directed by Michael Hoffman
20. The Men Who Stare At Goats, directed by Grant Heslov
21. My Own Love Song, directed by Oliver Dahan
22. Sympathy For Delicious, directed by Mark Ruffalo
23. Untitled Michael Moore Project, directed by Michael Moore
24. Freakonomics, directed by Heidi Ewing, Alex Gibney, Rachel Grady, Eugene Jarecki and Morgan Spurlock
25. The Invention of Lying, directed by Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson
26. Jennifer’s Body, directed by Karyn Kusama
27. Up In The Air, directed by Jason Reitman
28. Whip It, directed by Drew Barrymore
29. Youth In Revolt, directed by Miguel Arteta
30. Where The Wild Things Are, directed by Spike Jonze

Any particular films you're looking forward to?

Buying Tickets & Coupons (Updated for 2009)

Tickets go on sale on Monday morning, July 6, beginning at 10am. (Technically, donors have been able to purchase packages since June 1.) This year TIFF has divided ticket-purchasing options into three basic categories:

• Customized packages (you choose the films)
• Pre-set packages (programmers choose the films for you)
• Single tickets (September 4, 7am Single tickets on sale)
  Up to 4 per film per person. Read here for more details.

For those hoping to see as many films as possible, there are three main options: the 10-Ticket Package ($159.14), the Festival Lite Package (30 coupons for $386.25), and the Festival Package (50 coupons for $524.27). Keep in mind that you can buy more than one 10-Ticket Package. If cost is a real issue, one other option is to buy the Day Package ($201.88), which is good for 25 films that begin before 5:01 pm. (In 2006, 23 of the 34 films I saw would have qualified.) Combined with one 10-Ticket Package and some careful scheduling, the Daytime Pass can offer great bang for the buck.

The 10-Ticket Package remains the most flexible option, though it's less so than it used to be. You can no longer treat yourself and nine friends to a single screening. Instead, the 10-ticket package is now limited to 4 tickets per screening, per person and/or account. The Festival Package and the Festival Lite Package, however, are good for only one ticket per screening.

For what it's worth, 30-34 films (or 3.5-4 per day) seems to be my comfort zone. I've tried several strategies in the past. In 2005 I used the Festival Package to preorder more than 40 tickets, and by Tuesday or Wednesday I was already skipping screenings to catch up on sleep and to get some sun on my skin. In 2006 I preordered tickets to the 30 films at the top of my to-see list, scheduling one or two light days midweek, and then bought a few individual tickets, based on friends' recommendations and general buzz, after I got there. Last year, when the 30-ticket package wasn't an option, I returned to the Festival Package and took better advantage of those extra coupons by doing a lot of schedule-shuffling. During the last four or five days of the fest, I often had tickets to two films that were playing simultaneously, made a last-minute decision, and then whenever possible sold my extra ticket at face value to someone in the rush line. This year I'm considering buying the Festival Lite package and the Wavelengths package, since I always attend all six Wavelengths programs and it's a relative bargain at $55.40.

Note: This is an updated post, so the first few comments are two years old. Some of my advice then regarding the 10-ticket pass no longer applies.

First 26 films and new City to City Program

Two press releases were posted this morning:

The Toronto International Film Festival Brings Home The Best Of The Festival Circuit
Announcing the first 26 titles, all of which will be having their North American premieres at TIFF. Filmmakers of note include: Hong Sang-soo, Corneliu Porumboiu, Elia Suleiman, Manoel de Oliveira, Alain Resnais, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Tsai Ming-liang, Raya Martin, and Pen-Ek Ratanaruang.

New City To City Programme To Explore Urban Experience Through Screenings And Debate

The Toronto International Film Festival is pleased to announce the launch of City to City, a new annual Festival programme that will explore the evolving urban experience while presenting the best films from and about a selected city. City to City's inaugural spotlight lands on Tel Aviv. The programme will also include a public forum that will bring leading filmmakers and thinkers from Tel Aviv and Toronto into debate. Films selected for this programme will be announced later this summer.

"Cities are, almost by definition, cinematic," says Cameron Bailey, Festival Co-Director. "Films about cities show us what cities have been and what they can become. They show us how to live as urban citizens while also reflecting our fantasies and fears. Last year, the world's urban population hit 50 percent of the planet. By 2025, two-thirds of us will lead urban lives. We need to take a moment to think about what it means to live in these large and growing communities, with increasingly diverse and multicultural populations, and to consider how a city's identity is perpetually in flux. The City to City programme will screen great films set in great cities, allowing us to discover foreign urban environments while also enabling us to think more about our own."

Contemporary World Cinema (2009)

• Eyes Wide Open -- Haim Tabakman, Israel { IFC Daily }
  
• Huacho -- Alejandro Fernandez Almendras, Chile { trailer }
  
• Like You Know It All -- Hong Sang-soo, Republic of Korea { trailer }
  
• Lourdes -- Jessica Hausner, Austria/France/Germany
• Men on the Bridge -- Asli Oezge, Germany/Turkey/The Netherlands { trailer }
  
• My Year Without Sex -- Sarah Watt, Australia { trailer }
  
• Police, Adjective -- Corneliu Porumboiu, Romania { excerpt, IFC Daily }
  
• The Time that Remains -- Elia Suleiman, France/Belgium/Italy { excerpt, IFC Daily }
  
• The Wind Journeys -- Ciro Guerra, Colombia { trailer, IFC Daily }
  

Discovery (2009)

• Gigante -- Adrian Biniez, Uruguay/Germany/Argentina/The Netherlands { excerpt }
  
• The Happiest Girl in the World -- Radu Jude, Romania/The Netherlands { trailer }
  
• Kelin -- Ermek Tursunov, Kazakhstan
• La Pivellina -- Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel, Austria/Italy { trailer }
  
• Samson and Delilah -- Warwick Thornton, Australia { trailer }
  
• Should I Really Do It -- Ismail Necmi, Turkey { trailer }
  

Masters (2009)

• Air Doll -- Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan { trailer, IFC Daily }
  
• Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl -- Manoel de Oliveira { trailer }
  
• Les Herbes Folles -- Alain Resnais, France { excerpt, IFC Daily }
  

Vanguard (2009)

• Fish Tank -- Andrea Arnold, United Kingdom { excerpt, IFC Daily }
  

Visions (2009)

• Face -- Tsai Ming-liang, France/Taiwan/The Netherlands/Belgium { excerpt, IFC Daily }
  
• Independencia -- Raya Martin, France { trailer, IFC Daily }
  
• Irene -- Alain Cavalier, France { IFC Daily }
  
• Karaoke -- Chris Chong Chan Fui, Malaysia { trailer }
  
• Nymph -- Pen-Ek Ratanaruang,Thailand { trailer, IFC Daily }
  
• To Die Like a Man -- Joao Pedro Rodrigues, Portugal/France

A Silver Lining

The market has tanked, operating budgets are being slashed, and good workers are losing their jobs, BUT I just made my flight and hotel reservations and was able to book a better hotel for one more night and, all told, spent $500 less than last year. Hurray for the crappy economy?