It wasn’t even on our radar until, while walking around downtown Toronto, we saw the billboards going up. The Toronto International Film Festival was happening — and we were going to be in Toronto just in time for the action!
The Toronto International Film Festival is an annual, international phenomenon featuring some of the biggest names in film and highlighting some of the best works you’ve never seen before. This year was TIFF’s 47th annual festival — it’s been going since 1975! The 2022 festival ran for 11 days, featured hundreds of feature and short films, and frequently attracts close to half-a-million people to downtown Toronto.
Attending TIFF
Obviously we had to go! Getting a festival pass through a TIFF membership was a bit too pricey for us, so we opted to pick out a few interesting screenings. It’s a mad rush once ticket sales open to the public online, so make sure you’ve got your selections made and a good internet connection! We were able to grab a few tickets to a Short Films screening, Steven Speilberg’s The Fablemans, and Lila Neugebauer’s Causeway starring Jennifer Lawrence.
The Short Films We Saw
The screening of short films we saw was an approximately two hour block featuring seven different films.
* Anastasia* (Original Title: Анастасия)
Directed by Sarah McCarthy Produced in the UK
Baba
Directed by Mbithi Masya Produced in Kenya
Municipal Relaxation Module
Directed by Matthew Rankin Produced in Canada
Shadow of the Butterflies (Original Title: L’Ombre des papillons)
Directed by Sofia El Khyari Produced in France, Qatar and Portugal
À la vie à l’amor
Directed by Emilie Mannering Produced in Canada
Same Old
Directed by Lloyd Lee Choi Produced in Canada
She Always Wins
Directed by Hazel McKibbin Produced in the United States
The Features Films We Saw
Tickets to see feature films were hard to come by (who doesn’t want to see Speilberg’s next big movie before everyone else?), but we managed to grab tickets to two fantastic screenings.
Causeway
Starring Jennifer Lawrence Directed by Lila Neugebauer
The Fablemans
Starring Paul Dano Directed by Steven Spielberg
The Premiere Experience
Watching premier screenings at a festival is a unique experience. The audience is fully engaged in the movie.
People chatter about their expectations before the lights dim. The crowd shouts “ARRRRGH” when the anti-piracy (ha! get it?) flashes on screen. People applaud when TIFF acknowledges that it takes place on Native American land. There are hoops and hollers in support of TIFF volunteers. Laughter erupts each time the same silly TIFF-sponsor ad plays.
And all of that is before the actual movie has even started. Of course, everyone is respectful of the film screening, but there’s an energy in a premiere audience that makes it feel different.
Short Film Q&A Session
At our short films screening we got to participate in an audience-led Q&A with the directors of each movie.
After watching the heart-wrenching story of * Anastasia*, we heard from Anastasia herself, a political refugee who fled Russia after having spoken out against Putin’s regime. She was put on house-arrest and forbidden from taking care of her hospitalized daughter. Her daughter died while she was held prisoner by her government. The short follows her and her family’s journey to scatter her daughter’s ashes in the Black Sea. During the Q&A, Anastasia thanks the director, Sarah McCarthy, for telling her story on film; that her daughter “has not died in vain.”
The director of Same Old told us during the Q&A that he and his friends picked up some equipment during COVID lockdown in New York and started following a food delivery worker. The result is an incredible, beautifully-shot story about some of our most essential and undervalued workers.
And then there was Municipal Relaxation Module, a very short film about a man who calls into the parks department to suggest installation of a bench. When the bench gets installed without any credit to the caller he gets irate in a hilarious escalation of tensions with ridiculously low stakes. The entire short is only a few shots of a bench by a road and some voiceover, but is absolutely hilarious. The director, Matthew Rankin, told our audience that his footage and voiceover was also shot during COVID lockdown. I am still amazed at the creativity of this project.
The Red Carpet
TIFF had quite a few red carpet nights. Viola Davis walked the red carpet for the premier of The Woman King. Taylor Swift walked the same night for a special 35mm screening of her extended music video. Unfortunately, parking in Toronto is atrocious, so we missed both by mere minutes.
Oh! But, we did end up sitting right behind Johnny Depp during the screening of Causeway.
You can find year-round digital TIFF screenings, special events, and plan out your trip to the festival at tiff.net. And, if you’re under 25 years-old make sure to check out TIFF’s free “Under 25” membership for some of the member benefits at no charge.
You can also try out Amazon Prime Video to watch most of the films mentioned above after their release.