Get yourself in the right spot, get a lucky photograph of Benedict Cumberbatch, star of The Fifth Estate, send it to the right person and watch it be retweeted 54 times in less than an hour from fans as far away as Japan.
That’s just part of the madness of doing the Toronto International Film Festival without a media pass. I did TIFF years ago as an entertainment editor and that pass made the festival smooth as silk – you flashed it and you got into all the press screenings, bypassed the carpets and got a seat at the press conferences.
This time I and my friend, Diane, decided to go as civilians. No media pass, just buying a package and hoping we’d get a good time slot to choose films. We decided to do the full experience – a red carpet, celebrity photos, the rush line and getting up at 7:00 a.m. in the hopes of getting single tickets.
People pick TIFF films for various reasons. They trust a critic or media outlet, they have celebrities they like, they like foreign films or they like a particular director. Diane and I went with lists.
List 1: Films we really wanted to see.
List 2: Films we’d be happy to see if we didn’t get the films we wanted in our first list.
List 3: Films we’d be ok seeing if we really had no choice.
By the way, the button that tells you there are extra tickets is a lie. The button lies!
For such an important film festival, it’s surprisingly low-tech. Instead of receiving your film tickets electronically, you had to bring your voucher and watch as the volunteers then dug through a box to find your ticket packet.
First up, the red carpet. We decide to do The Fifth Estate because it was the opening gala. We wandered over to Roy Thomson Hall and got ushered into an area that had seats and pillows.
The crowd was cheerful, everyone waiting to see Benedict Cumberbatch. The TIFF volunteers warmed up the crowd, getting a few to practice cheering. It was pretty clear to us that the volunteers didn’t know that the Cumberbitches/Cumberbatches/CumberCollective didn’t need warming up because after less than an hour’s wait – for us, others waited longer and got better spots – Benedict Cumberbatch arrived to screams and shouts.
He signed autographs and posed for pictures. Very gentlemanly.
First day of TIFF: a success. Next: A rush line tomorrow.
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