The 2011 TIFF Season Has Begun

The first important press release of the year was issued back in May, when TIFF announced they will be adding a new venue: the Princess of Wales Theatre at 300 King Street West. TIFF will be "outfitting the Princess of Wales Theatre with a state-of-the-art projection and audio system for both film and digital cinema. We’ll be equipping the venue with the ability to play 35mm, DCP and HDCAM formats." It will be used for red carpet events during the first half of the fest.

But, to me, the TIFF season officially began yesterday yesterday:

Continuing its move southward, TIFF will open a new box office at Metro Hall (225 King Street West) and will no longer hold screenings at the Varsity. (Buy a 40 and pour some out, won't you?) It looks like all of the other venues will be the same as last year, with the Scotiabank again primarily hosting press and industry screenings. I'm glad to see Jackman Hall on the list and am hoping that means Wavelengths will be back there again.


TICKET PACKAGES
There are a few new "please help us fill all those empty seats" ticket packages:

TIFF CHOICE 5-Film Sampler Pack
Selected by TIFF programmers, this new package allows film lovers to experience films from a variety of Festival programmes.

MY CHOICE 20-Film Daytime
Enjoy 20 regular screenings beginning before 5:01 p.m.

Back Half Pack
Festival-goers can save 50 percent off the regular ticket price when they purchase this new 5-ticket pack, valid September 13 through to the end of the Festival.

And it looks like the old student discount has been reclassified for "film lovers 25 and under." Because those filthy-loaded grad students are always working the system.

IMPORTANT DATES

June 20:
TIFF Members can purchase ticket packages using Visa.

July 4:
Visa cardholders can order ticket packages online as of 10 a.m. ET. Visa Screening Room packages on sale.

Beginning July 11:
Ticket packages on sale for Visa, cash and debit purchases as of 10 a.m. ET.

August 23:
Festival Box Office at 225 King St. West opens. The Programme Book, Official Film Schedule and Advance Order Book, for selecting films within My Choice Packs, are available only at the Festival Box Office. The Film Schedule is available online at tiff.net/festival.

Aug 25 to 29:
Single tickets on sale to TIFF Members (based on giving levels).

August 29:
Completed Advance Order Books for My Choice Packs are due by 7 p.m. ET at the Festival Box Office for entry into the Advance Order Draw.

Beginning September 2:
Ticket package pick up and exchange begins.

Beginning September 3:
Single tickets à la carte are available for purchase beginning at 7 a.m. ET from the Festival Box Office, by phone at 416-599-TIFF or 1-888-599-8433, and online at tiff.net/festival (subject to availability).

September 8 to 18:
36th Toronto International Film Festival

Buying Tickets & Coupons (Updated for 2010)

The 2010 edition of the TIFF website went live this morning (it's pretty), and the first important information has been posted: Tickets and Packages.

Tickets go on sale on Monday morning, June 21, for donors, and Visa cardholders can begin making purchase on July 5. Like last year, TIFF has divided ticket-purchasing options into three basic categories, which have been rebranded:

• My Choice Packages (you choose the films)
• TIFF Choice Packages (programmers choose the films for you)
• A-la Carte tickets (September 3, 7am Single tickets on sale)
  

The good news: Ticket prices haven't changed! New this year, they've dropped the old "Festival" and "Festival Lite" package titles for more consistent and obviously-descriptive names.For those hoping to see as many films as possible, there are three main options: the 10-Tickets Package is $160 ($159.14 last year), the 30-Films Package is $386 ($386.25 last year), and the 50-Films Package is $524 ($524.27 last year). The Courier Film Selection Service (formerly Out-of-Town Package) is $150.

Keep in mind that you can buy more than one 10-Tickets Package. If cost is a real issue, one option is to buy one of the two Day Packages, which are good for 25 films ($202) or 15 films (new for this year at $139) that begin before 5:01 pm. (In 2006, 23 of the 34 films I saw would have qualified.) Combined with one 10-Tickets Package and some careful scheduling, the daytime packages can offer great bang for the buck.

The 10-Tickets 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-Tickets Package is now limited to 4 tickets per screening, per person and/or account. The 30-Films Package and the 50-Films 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 50-Films 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 50-Films 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.

Note: This is an updated post.

$2.50 Charge for Ticket Exchanges

Richard at TIFF Talk noticed a change in the ticketing policy:

Thanks to Greg from TOfilmfest.ca for pointing out that in the latest mailing to festival goers, it lists that if you want to exchange a ticket to one film for a different film or screening, there is a $2.50 charge per ticket. Tickets can be exchanged up until the day before the actual screening.

He also offers some advice for minimizing your number of exchanges. I decided to buy the full 50-ticket Festival Pass this year, which will give me 10-15 extra vouchers to play with. As Richard notes, rather than exchanging a real ticket, you can always sell it to someone in the rush line. I usually walk to the front of the line, hold the ticket in the air, and sell it at face value. There's always a taker.

Picking Up Your Tickets

Toronto locals have already begun picking up their ticket orders (here are first-hand accounts from TIFF Talk and Movie Moxie). For those of us coming to town later in the week, the main thing to note is the change in location. Instead of heading to the bowels of College Park, we'll all need to go to:

Festival Box Office at Toronto Life Square
10 Dundas Street East, third floor
[ Google Map ]

Would any local be willing to post specific directions to the office in the comments? Is it at all hard to find?

Making Schedules, Ordering Tickets

Richard at TIFF Talk has updated his invaluable "How the Heck do I Fill Out the Order Form" post. Thanks, Richard.

I've compiled a long list of films I want to see but haven't yet begun studying the schedule. That's the one part of the process that I really enjoy doing with pen and paper and with the printed schedule in front of me. I've heard from several people who are incredibly disappointed by the new Visa Screening Room policy. A good number of high profile films simply aren't available to festival goers who purchased a ticket package -- not without steep additional cost, at least. Any other scheduling frustrations?

And the more important question: Has anyone received their Out-of-Town Package yet?

Online Ticketing System

I recall one or two readers mentioning that they'd tried out the Online Ticketing Tool last year and had had good experiences with it. I received an email from TIFF yesterday notifying me that I'd been selected for this "pilot program," so I have two questions:

First, did anyone else receive this email? I don't remember expressing an interest in participating in online ticketing, so I'm curious to know why I was selected and if others were as well.

Second, any advice or words of warning from veterans of online ticketing? I have until tomorrow to decide whether or not I want to participate.

Tickets On Sale This Morning

Tickets go on sale this morning at 10 am for Visa cardholders. I've updated last year's posts on "Buying Tickets and Coupons" and "The Out-of-Town Package." The good news is that ticket prices haven't risen for 2008.

27 Films, a New Venue, and New Ticket Packages Announced

Two big press releases today. First, TIFF has announced the initial batch of international titles. Nearly all of the 27 films will be having their North American premieres in Toronto after debuting at Cannes or Director's Fortnight. Clicking on the "Films" label will give you a constantly-updated list of every announced film, or you can browse by program.

The second press release is much more interesting. First comes word that "the AMC Yonge & Dundas will provide almost one third of TIFF’s 34 screens." A new 24-screen multiplex on Yonge and Dundas? Anyone from Toronto want to send along a description of the theater? Has anyone heard which venue(s) is/are being dropped? I vote for The Cumberland.

Also, there are two new ticket packages. The description is a bit vague:

The Festival Lite and Daytime Lite Packages offer smaller versions of the original Festival Package and Daytime Package, respectively, for those who want to experience the Festival on a lighter scale. The Festival Lite offers the opportunity to see up to 30 films, while the Daytime Lite is good for up to 15 films (one ticket per screening). The Festival Package and Daytime Package are still available for TIFF-going cinephiles.

I wonder if the Festival Lite is exactly the same as the old 30-ticket pass?

Buying Tickets, Filling Out Forms

While we all wait for the schedule to be announced and our packages to arrive, consider this the post for discussing how to buy tickets and fill out the Out-of-Town forms. For now, here are a couple great primers from TIFF Talk:

• Advanced Ticketing -- how the process works, including an illustrated description of the lottery system
• Filling Out the Form (2007 edition) -- I'm guessing that tomorrow evening, when we're all hunched over our packets, green and yellow highlighters in hand, this link is going to come in handy

Feel free to ask questions in the comments.

The Waiting is the Hardest Part

From Noel Murray's "Pre-Pre-TIFF" post at the Onion AV Club blog:

But one aspect of TIFF-going that I haven’t seen written about much—though veterans often talk about it amongst themselves—is the emotional rollercoaster of “announcement season.” From the moment Cannes ends, TIFF-goers start contemplating which of the most hotly buzzed Cannes titles will make it to Toronto. (Answer: Pretty much all of them.) And then we start watching the preliminary announcements from Venice and New York—the former because they often schedule must-see films that we didn’t previously know existed, and the latter because whatever gets pegged as the opening night NYFF film won’t be playing TIFF. (So no Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited for us in Toronto this year.)

I started 1st Thursday, in part, because by early-June I was already exchanging emails with several friends, doing exactly what Noel describes. One person I know tracks films from Cannes, Berlin, and Rotterdam in a spreadsheet and has already compiled an ordered list of the 100 films he's most eager to see, whether at TIFF or elsewhere. Another friend keeps a close eye on Variety, cutting and pasting snippets from reviews that catch his attention. (More than once I've seen a film simply because Robert Koehler happened to use words like "poetic" or "impressionist" in a positive note -- Munyurangabo, here I come.)

Last year, in a post called "Impossibly, Even Scarily, Geeky," I revealed my own strategy for choosing films. It involves Excel, the assigning of points based on peculiar and ever-evolving criteria, and some simple computations. This year I created my new file, tiff2007.xls, on June 27, soon after TIFF announced its first large batch of confirmed titles. And now, like Noel, I make frequent detours to the Media Centre, eagerly anticipating each new release.

The Out-of-Town Package (Updated for 2008)

Note: The cost of the Out-of-Town package remains $150 for 2008.

A friend and I always say that the annual ritual of opening the Out-of-Town Package is the closest we'll ever come to recapturing the childhood thrill of Christmas morning. The package allows festival-goers from outside of Toronto to request tickets a week before the festival begins. It comes at a cost ($150), but, in my experience, it's money very well spent. The most significant advantage of the Out-of-Town package is this: In four years, I have received all but three or four of my first film choices. Given the amount of time others spend waiting in ticket and rush lines, I gladly pay the extra money for the convenience of having an envelope full of tickets waiting for me when I arrive in Toronto. The package also includes a copy of the complete, full-color Festival Program Book ($32 last year).

The Out-of-Town Package works something like this: On August 27, you will receive a FedEx shipment that includes the program book, a festival schedule, ticket order forms, and a pre-paid FedEx return envelope. The order forms are fairly straight-forward -- you simply highlight the films you want to see and note the number of tickets requested for each. You will then be expected to FedEx your forms back to TIFF by 5pm on the following day, guaranteeing that they arrive by 1pm on Friday, August 29, which is the deadline for the advanced ticket drawing.

Note: The Out-of-Town Package works in conjunction with the festival passes and coupons (Festival, Daytime, 10-Film, etc.). You can't use it to buy individual tickets. After you arrive in Toronto, you will be able to redeem your coupons for actual tickets at the Festival Ticket Office at College Park.

College Park (Updated for 2008)

Note: College Park is no longer home to a festival box office. It has been replaced by the new office at Toronto Life Square at 10 Dundas Street East, which is where advanced ticket orders can be picked up.

There's decent grocery store on the lower level of College Park, which is a nice convenience given its close proximity to so many downtown hotels (one block from the Days Inn and Delta Chelsea).

Subway Stop: College