Try Toronto Film festival brings out the stars

August 8, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

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By Joe Williams

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

If you’re a foL- lower of film, Christmas comes in September. That’s when the world’s largest and arguably most important film festival unspools in Canada’s biggest city. And unlike Cannes, which is the only event that can rival its star power and prestige, the Toronto International Film Festival is open to the public. So it’s a great excuse to visit the movie-mad metropolis 100 miles north of the U.S. border.

Because the annual fest is scheduled for the second week of September in a major media market, Toronto has become a base camp for filmmakers hoping to climb the mountain of movie acclaim. Many of the year-end Oscar contenders debut there. Last year, “The King’s Speech” cleared its throat in Toronto before stepping onto the world stage. Three years ago, when festival attendees voted for their favorite entry, the final answer was an unheralded film called “Slumdog Millionaire.” In previous years, the festival prizewinners included “Hotel Rwanda,” “Whale Rider,” “Amelie” and “American Beauty.”

Ticket packages for this year’s event, which runs Sept. 8-18, are now available by phone or online at tiff.net. The complete list of 300 films will be finalized in late August, but we already know it will include: the world premiere of “Moneyball,” a baseball drama starring Brad Pitt; “Butter,” a state-fair comedy starring Jennifer Garner and Hugh Jackman; Francis Ford Coppola’s murder-mystery “Twixt”; a high-octane thriller called “Drive,” starring Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan and Albert Brooks; Madonna’s royal romance “W.E.”; George Clooney’s political drama “The Ides of March”; and Cameron Crowe’s documentary “Pearl Jam Twenty.”

The public can buy tickets to individual screenings, wait in “rush” lines for last-minute tickets or choose from several kinds of multiticket passes.

When bought in packages, individual tickets average about $10 apiece (in the roughly equivalent Canadian and U.S. currencies). If you buy now, you can reserve your right to pick the movies after the schedule is announced, or you can save a few bucks by letting the organizers select your movies at random.

Where to stay

I always stay at a hotel in Toronto’s large Chinatown neighborhood, which is a 15-minute walk or five-minute trolley ride to the entertainment district. When I first visited the festival in 2001, the converted dormitory called the Grange Hotel (grangehotel.com) was a great bargain — 60 bucks a night for a room with two twin beds and a kitchenette. But since then, the Canadian dollar has surged in value, and the same room now costs about $100. It’s still a relatively good value, in a part of town where it’s easy to get cheap meals and maple-leaf souvenirs. If you’d prefer to pay extra for a chain hotel that’s classier and closer to the action, there are dozens that you can compare and book online, but be aware that they fill up fast.

See the stars

During the festival, cosmopolitan Toronto is besieged by beautiful people. As chronicled on the front pages of the city’s four daily newspapers, the stars come out for movie premieres, parties and press conferences, and they’re easier for fans to access than in Hollywood or New York. Much of the mingling happens in the fashionable Yorkville district, about two miles north of the Lake Ontario waterfront and the iconic CN tower (the tallest structure in North America). You can spot the famous faces in the tree-shaded cafes, or see them entering and exiting their limousines in front of the Yorkville hotels.

Other activities

Even if you aren’t attending the festival, Toronto is a fun place to visit, especially during the mild, sunny month of September. Sports fans can catch a baseball game at the indoor-outdoor Rogers Centre, visit the International Hockey Hall of Fame or see Canada’s version of pro football. Those who enjoy the outdoors can bike along the lakefront or take a ferry to the beaches at the car-free harbor islands (which you can see from the observation deck in the CN tower). And the shopping and dining in Toronto are as good as what you’ll find in New York, at prices that are closer to Chicago’s.

American citizens now need a passport to enter Canada but not a visa.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about the Toronto International Film Festival, including ticket purchases, visit the official Website at tiff.net.