The official schedule is out today for the festival. Programme books will be available for pickup at the Festival Box Office starting at 9:00 AM. New this year, you can print out your pickup voucher at home from the ticketing website, just bring it with you when you go to pick up your books.
If you bought a My Choice regular or premium ticket package, then yesterday you should have received an e-mail with instructions and your starting login time for selection. Starting at that time, and not before, you will be able to log into the ticketing site to select your films. I got an 11:00 AM start time next Monday as an example.
Other than there being a new site this year, the basic rules of the selection process seem to largely be the same:
- Selections and inventory are updated in real-time.
- You have a limited time window once you log in to make your selections.
- You receive vouchers if you don't select all your available screenings in your package.
- Once you submit your selections you cannot log back into the website to make changes.
156 comments:
any idea when it goes online? thought that it would be 9 but can't seem to find it
The new site is terrible, it's all very messy, you can't even filter movies based on sections. I'm afraid when they post the schedule it's gonna be the same.
And the ticketing platform, don't even get me started. Searching through the hundreds of movies will be hell. Just try to buy regular TIFF tickets on that platform and you'll see what I mean.
The only good thing out of all of this is I got a pretty sweet selection time: 10 AM on August 30, which I think is early day 1. :)
This year I made the decision not to purchase the program. And now I have no clue how to filter by program just to browse within the program... Anyone know how? I tried to select "Gala Presentations" but then all movies seem to show up still...
Nm, I'm hacking the website URL to get to a program:
http://www.tiff.net/?filter=future.festival.gala-presentations
Replace "gala-presentations" with the program name, using - as spaces. Seems to have solved my problem.
Man, despite all the complaints over the years and a halfway decent site - finally! - last year, this one is a total disaster.
No schedule. No indication of whether a screening is premium either, which i'm guessing most of these GALAS are.
And how hard is to just post a pdf of the schedule like they did last year?
bleh. so now going film by film, you can't even see all the screening times on one page, you have to click on each day several times to see the showtime, whoever designed this thing needs to never work in website design again - you know, just as a favour to humanity.
I get as a charitable organization not to expect bleeding edge tech ... but yeah, they never learn from past years or do a thorough QC before launching anything. :p
I'm curious to see what issues there will be with the new TicketMaster-powered ordering and the mobile/home-printed tickets. Partly being wary and partly for nostalgia, I'm going to have them print up my hard tickets as usual!
If you want to just read descriptions, I find TOfilmfest.com is good - they have descriptions for most of the films. I have the free paper schedule but hopefully tiffr.com will be up soon - I've always found them to be pretty good. I actually ignore the real site each year and use TOfilmfest and tiffr lol.
The lack of a grid schedule is the biggest issue for me right now. It was so convenient to see when one movie ends and another begins. Scheduling my 30 pack without it will be hell.
I plan on using tiffr
Larry Richman posted this timetable on his twitter site, @larry411: http://assets.contentful.com/22n7d68fswlw/5mjlKFFhUkia8y0msm28s6/d071084eed87b39733e1ea26d2faa69f/TIFF16-OFS-Schedule_Pages.pdf
Bless his little heart! Sorry, don't know how to turn it into a link in this format.
Thank the movie gods for tiffr.com. The fest should just hire them to run their site for the '17 fest :)
As of today (Aug 27)Arrival on Sept 12 is sold out. Also LBJ on Sept 15 sold out.
As of August 27th, 15:00,
Sold Out:
Snowden (9th)
Arrival (12th)
When I checked, LBJ (15th) still available.
Thanks
As of 3:00 pm (Aug 27), premieres of the following are off sale:
- Magnificent Seven (Sept 9 at Princess of Wales), RTH screening still available
- American Pastoral (Sept 9)
- La La Land (Sept 12)
But, as per my experience, try anyway as it might simply have been in someone's cart but not purchased ultimately.
FYI - The Wasted Times - which was announced in July as being part of the festival and is in the printed schedule no longer appears on the website.
I was down at the box office today and asked them about it, they confirmed that the are no screenings.
There is a page on the TIFF site http://www.tiff.net/changes/ listing official changes; currently, the removal of The Wasted Times from the festival is the only change.
My slot is 1pm Tue 30th will that be the first time I will be able to see what's available. Never bought a package before normally waited to Single Day. those who can see what's off sale - is that because you've had your slot?
Thanks again tifftalk for this great resource! Also thanks to Quintefox for the kind shoutout. I also have the following Excel available:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/t6r987elhqdrtz5/Ryland%20TIFF16%20Festival%20Grid.xls?dl=0
Feel free to download. You can enable macros and sort using the functions at the top. You can also fill in the two interest columns with your own 1-10 rating to sort by your personal rankings.
It will be updated and many runtimes are missing but it could be helpful.
Ugh, why is Wasted Times cancelled? Was really looking forward to that. So Ziyi Zhang is coming all the way to Toronto just to judge the Platform section?
Moira: Patrons Circle members were able to go in from 8/25-27 to buy individual tickets. They reported back on which films were off sale.
As far as seeing what's available, it remains to be seen. In the past, this blog (this thread at the moment) was often the only place to see what was off sale in real time as people fulfilling packages would come here and post. What TIFF did do was to post all the off sales AFTER the package sales were done, just prior to the individual ticket sales, so those people would know what went off sale during package sales. Of course, that doesn't help those of us with packages. So, as of now, this thread is it!
Does anyone who has been through the new package redemption checkout procedure so far have any comments/gotchas/tips/thoughts to share on the new process this year?
Thanks Larry I figured it was that as I just couldn't see anything. I did read here last year a lot of grumblings with films not being available during pack selection then coming back on again at different times then Single Day - I understand reason but it's frustrating especially when they don't allow you to make exchanges until the 5th and don't even allow you to use any vouchers you kept back. Premium packs especially since individually they work out nearly $20 more expensive.
Agreed. There's always been some mystery as to why screenings disappear and reappear. The "official" TIFF reasons are, first, that people select screenings, which then sit reserved in their shopping carts, and then decide not to buy them and they go back into the system. I've always found that hard to believe. The other reason, a bit more believable, is that once refunds and exchanges are allowed people will return tickets.
TIFF USED to limit the number of tickets sold during package sales so that a block of tickets would still be available at single ticket time. But then they stopped doing that and, if it was gone during package sales, it was gone.
I'd be grateful for any tips too Madeleine. On the instructions to select tix I was surprised to see you save choice, review all choices then add to cart and check out. On Single it was always add to cart for each film choice. Is this something new or has always been done like that with packages. What I am happy with is because I've bought both premium and regular packages I've not been given 2 totally different slots. I know you can't redeem both at exactly same time but can go in one after the other. Stupid question but come your time slot and taking into account TIFF website might not be to the sec with your clock - when you click on Ticket+Join+Donate do you just keep refreshing until you see in left hand Navigation Bar "Redeem My Package" from experience has there been delays or worked fine - just don't want to panic or waste time thinking I've done something wrong. Sorry for all the questions just want to be prepared.
This "save" after each ticket and then "add to cart" at the end of a particular package selection is new. It's part of the Ticketmaster system. Another changes, as you mentioned, is that they used to give you a different window time for each package. Now all packages purchased by one purchaser count as one purchase and you get one window per purchase, so you fulfill all the packages you bought at the same time (one package after another).
Many of us used to keep the log in page opened on multiple tabs/windows/computers. I don't know about the "refreshing" in this case since this is a new website but I just tried it and it didn't log me out, so I assume you will just be able to keep refreshing until they shows up.
I go in at 2 PM Eastern today so I will report back.
I can't actually purchase anything yet because the system is glitching, but it does show Manchester by the Sea off sale as well as the others.
Premiere of Lion (Sept 10) is now off sale.
The premium for Deepwater Horizon is also off sale. The only regular screenings marked as off sale (aside from The Wasted Times) at 2pm 8/28 were a few of the Wavelengths programmes.
Site is not working at all for me. Just spent 50 minutes entering the same selections 3 times, each time all are deleted upon add to cart. Now on hold.
Same here. At first I could see my ticket package and now it has disappeared altogether. I tried switching to chrome from firefox but same problem.
This is a mess.
I have three packages I started with the 40-flex regular. I went through one by one and saved all my 40 selections, then finally went to "find" and it was all there. I then clicked "add to cart" and it said "technical error" and everything was wiped. So I went and started over and when I finally got to "find" it said "you must fix errors below." But there were no errors. And it wiped out all my selections again. I started over again for the third time. Selected all my films. Then counted. Exactly the right number. Hit "find" and it said "you must address errors below." And all the selections were wiped out. For the third time. 50 minutes, literally. Now it's almost 90 minutes since I first went in and I'm on hold 40 minutes so far.
OMG Larry that's awful and it's been one of my worries. I know when I did Single Day I used to be raging when you added to cart then checked out to find some of your choices gone off sale - I don't understand systems that let you add to cart but take away if you are within your time frame?? - but this is a major major problem IMO - does anyone know how many people are allocated to any time slot. I understand you don't have to go in at that time but I expect most do to maximise their chances of 1st choices. Good luck anyone having this issue and I pray it's fixed soon.
It took me over an hour to get on the phone, but when I did, I managed to get tickets for a few of the movies listed off sale. (La La Land and Manchester by the Sea) I only was doing a premium pack this year so my options were limited.
For those who've gone through the process successfully, what browsers have you been using? Wondering if there is any consistency to success/ failure with the site.
I am using Firefox. A friend of mine used Firefox then switched to Chrome. Same thing happened to her.
I'm pleased you got some of your choices that appeared off sale. It's seems it's trial and error with packages. I can appreciate the frustration and annoyance for those yesterday that LaLaLand showed off sale to now see it's back on, probably not for long lol.
I have to wonder how bad it will be for Single Ticket day because the volume for today is not nearly as significant as for that day. Ticketmaster should have dealt with this by now.
I also note that when you do get the tickets that it assigns a seat... although I suspect that seating will be first come first serve as in years past.
Chrome worked for me, though a friend had the same "technical error" with one of his packages (the other worked okay).
That's interesting Nicole about seat numbers. I know in RTH you've always been assigned an area but anywhere else its first come. The only time I have had a specific seat is when we did rush for Prisoners back in 2013 at Elgin - a lady came up and gave my friend 2 tix - she said she was from Warner Bros. We ended up sitting by the cast and crew. Apart from that no seat numbers. Would make life easier if seat numbers and stop people queuing for hours.
Now TIFF has just responded telling me some of my selections were off sale and to pick other movies. Glad i got the issue sorted out by phone an hour ago. And none of my selections were off sale because you can't choose those, nor did any new ones show up while I hit refresh.
Pretty useless help.
So you've not lost what you got via phone? This was TIFF responding to your initial online selection that went haywire??
I had the same problem as Larry R, EXCEPT it only affected my Premium package.
I successfully checked out my Tiff regular pack (40 selections) while I waited on hold with Tiff (got a human after 52 minutes).
A very friendly and helpful person was able to secure me seats to all the premium showings I wanted (realizing there were a few that were already known to be off sale, which I didn't try for). Though she needed to get her supervisor as it sounded like Loving on 9/11 at 6:30pm was close to going off sale.
Mixed experience, but the phone support was comforting.
PS - I used a Firefox browser.
Sorry for the confusion. It was only online where I had problems. I only had a premium pack and while I did not chose anything that was listed off sale (you can't) it would not let me process my selections. I was brought to the cart once, but then when I pressed to finalize the site said there was a technical issue. When I hit refresh it brought me back to the selections and I tried again, at which point I could not get to the cart again and was told there was an item I needed to look at, but it never specified the issue. I was able to refresh and no new movies were being listed as off sale.
I only received my selections (and a few listed off sale) once I connected by phone with TIFF after over an hour on hold.
I used a firefox browser and was trying to open a new window with chrome after i wasted 20 minutes going nowhere.
If not for the phone experience I would have been angry. As it was i took me 90 minutes to get my tickets. Thankfully it was a weekend and I wasn't at work.
I've got a 12 premium and 10 Regular flex so I'll phone at same time just to be on safe side. Anyone got tix for The Headhunter's Calling?? Hoping that'll be available Tuesday. I'm surprised nobody has said Nocturnal Animals has gone off sale yet. I thought that would be one of the first. Good luck and well done to everyone getting their choices sorted out today. I can only imagine how frustrating it must've been wondering with new system if it was something you were doing opposed to being Ticketmaster error.
Finally got through on the phone after 95 minutes on hold. Another half hour to order. Total time from the moment I first logged in and started selecting until my order was done = 3 hours and 5 minutes.
TIFF finally responded to me on Twitter with "Hi Larry - the issue here is that inventory for some of your selections are now offsale. You'll need to choose different films." Same as Nicole said. Which was not the problem at all. Sheesh.
Also, Nicole's most recent post describes almost exactly what I went through.
So they were trying to tell you it was like the issue I had at Single Day - you cart all your choices, press submit and it tells you this or that off sale and you had to go back and start again. It's obvious it wasn't something like that. Appears to me TIFF don't want to admit at this early stage their new system is more flawed than the previous.
TIFFHelp seem to be defaulting to "inventory for some of your selections are now offsale, please choose different films." Dreading having to go through this during the middle of my work day tomorrow.
I can only say that if you aren't able to process your selections after two tries, then start the call to the Box Office.
this might sound stupid but could there be a chance the new way we've been told to select each film is wrong? I thought it was weird it wasn't a case of click on date, choose film, select tix, add to cart, continue shopping then submit order.
When you get online, you will be able to see the 12 pack and the 10 pack (or whatever you purchased). You can only click on one at a time. When you do, the movies available for that pack will show up in chronological order. You have to indicate how many tickets for each movie you would like and then hit save for each movie you want. When you are done with the pack, you hit find tickets and it is supposed to show you a list of what you have chosen and then you can put it in the pack. That is when the 30 minutes starts to run. I was never able to do that last part.
Nicole is correct. After you log in:
1) Click on "CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE" under Tickets + Join + Donate at the top of the screen. In the center under Films + Events + Memberships it will show you the packages you bought.
2) Click the "continue" button at the right of the package you want to fulfill.
3) Now you will have a list of all the screenings in date and time order. For each screening, you first click SELECT at the right. Then a section slides open where you can pick the number of tickets. On mine, each one defaulted to 2. If you then just click SAVE you will have selected 2. If you want only one you have to click the minus symbol and then SAVE. If you want more than 2 you click the plus symbol, etc. Now it's tricky. Mine was very slow and after I hit SAVE I had to wait awhile for it to go through. After it has gone through it will show you how many you selected for that screening. Then go to the next screening.
4) After you have selected all the tickets you're allowed for that package, click FIND TICKETS at the bottom. Now you are supposed to be taken to a page where you can review the selections. That is when your clock starts counting down (it will show you the time).
5) Then you click ADD TO CART. At this point they are locked in as long as you finish within the allotted time.
At this point there should be a way to continue on to the next package. I was never able to get that far so I don't know. But then after adding everything to your cart you should be able to check out.
Mu first time, after I completed my first package and clicked ADD TO CART, I got a "technical error" and everything was deleted. I started over. THIS time, I didn't even get that far. I got up to FIND TICKETS and then I got a dialogue box that said there was an error on the page and to fix the error, but I couldn't find any, and it had deleted all my selections. I went back a third time and the same thing happened -- I got as far as FIND TICKETS, clicked that, and then got the same "error on page" and all my 40 films were deleted.
I highly recommend calling. Use more than one phone if you can.
That's interesting chronological rather than just a date then a sub page with all films for that date. hopefully if it works Tuesday for me it won't take long scrolling through pages trying to find your choices. Thanks for all the info /tips
I know you never got that far but When you say at the review stage that's when clock starts - once you've added to cart I take it you check out before starting next package or check out once both packages selected. Sorry if these are stupid questions. Just want to be prepared on the day. Hope you got all your choices
I recommend calling as well. I've had too many frustrations with the site over the years and with a new system there are bound to be glitches.
I did check my account online after we were finished and for one film the agent had bought me the wrong day. When I called back I spoke to a different agent, and she referred me to a supervisor who was able to make the correction and issue a credit to my credit card.
One new wrinkle this year, apparently, is that you have to indicate each time when you should get preferred seating, the magic "P" on your ticket. And for RTH premieres, Patrons get an assigned seat, which you can see on your online TIFF account.
I have emailed the Manager of Member Engagement and expressed my frustration at the systems this year. As someone else noted this year i had to give up on the TIFF site and go back to the programme book - and apparently in person box office. Thankfully TIFFR exists and is the saving grace.
What I know is that last spring they hired a new Director of IT. I know this because I was one of the 20 short listed for it. This would be the Director's first festival to impact the technology. Clearly this is not a good sign for their technology road map.
I understand the switch to Ticketmaster as a way to jump to electronic ticketing - which everyone has been asking for - but at what cost. Also, as members we essentially become the pilot users for the new system which is a poor model to test with your most valued users.
I can live with the Ticketmaster switch - but whatever they did to their website is horrible.
Hi Eusabeia - does the preferred seating at RTH also apply during non-premieres? And is that what the "Fest Priority Adult" ticket was referring to?
Moira: Good questions. The clock started after I clicked "FIND" but BEFORE I clicked Add to cart. That's basically saying you have 30 minutes to add these to your cart or you will lose them and have to start over. I never got past Add to cart so I don't know what happens then but I assume another clock starts again. Then you are supposed to go back to your next package and add that to your cart and repeat until all your packages are done. THEN you check out. Once you check out you can NOT go back in again. So each screening gets SAVED, each package gets ADDED TO CART, and there's only ONE Check out. If you check out before your second package is selected they will all turn into vouchers.
Another change this year is that ALL tickets have assigned sections/seat numbers on them. We know that all Roy screenings are reserved but that others are not. So, as far as I know, the non-Roy tickets with sections and seats are simply for Ticketmaster's inventory purposes, as they have to know how many tickets they've sold. But I do believe they are all general admission and the sections/seats on the tickets are meaningless. If I'm wrong correct me but I would love it if they moved to all-reserved seating for all venues!
Daryl: Thanks for the followup with them and the backstory on all this. Pierre Bois saw my tweets, as well, and I put together a lengthy but concise explanation as to what I went through, including comments from others on this blog and on Twitter.
He hasn't responded although he did Like the one tweet where I praised the phone rep who eventually served me. But I would like some sort of personal response from someone there.
Please followup if you find out anything that you can share with us.
Well for all those who follow we can only hope they know how to rectify it before too long. Daryl it makes so much sense what you described with the system not being able to recognise the release of the tix once error occurred. If you realised this then hopefully the IT Dept knows a quick fix - otherwise we're all doomed lol
I sent Pierre an email as well with my experience - which matches everyone here.
With my background in this i am fairly confident that what happened is there is an error in the Add to Cart script. However, as the tickets have been pulled for you the system still thinks you have them in your staging/review area - thus it won't let you find more tickets when you try again. However, since they aren't in your cart you cannot check out with them.
Thus everyone who gets the add to cart error is stuck in a limbo on the site and will never be able to process their selections online.
Thankfully I am a 10min walk from the Box Office so I had that option. The members box office had absolutely no line for any member who has trouble tomorrow and can get there.
It'll be interesting to know from the minute this error occurred was every member in same boat - or did it work for some and not others? If it didn't work for all and it's not something they can have fixed quickly then TIFF need to stand up to the plate and send an email out to all members explaining if they get this error it can't be rectified online please call box office - rather than have people trying and trying.
I saw all the TIFF Help tweets and their assumption inventory sold out. I wonder if it is a bit of both - you have a good percentage all hitting add to cart at same time, so with it being live - not enough tix for all - then as Daryl suspects various parts of the system are just not tying up on retry save part. At least the actual inventory wasn't in limbo for box office staff so they could give members their choices.
I gave up on packages a couple years ago but a friend just sent screenshots of what's showing up as off-sale for premium. Thought this might be helpful?
Sep 8 - Magnificent Seven
Sep 9 - A United Kingdom
Sep 9 - American Pastoral
Sep 9 - Snowden
Sep 10 - Lion
Sep 10 - Queen of Katwe
Sep 12 La La Land
Sep 12 - Norman
Sep 12 - Arrival
Sep 13 - Manchester by the Sea
Sep 13 - Deepwater Horizon
La La Land Fri Sep 16 9:30pm (regular ticket) offsale.
@Daryl, thanks for all your information. Now that TIFF will be using Ticketmaster for ticketing, will we be able to print out our tickets at home? Or do we still have to line up at TIFF to pick up the official tickets? I'm asking because this year my time is extremely limited. I'm driving from Michigan to attend TIFF on Saturday, the 10th. I'll be seeing a film that starts at 11:45 and it will be very tight having to line up to get my ticket that Saturday morning and then run to the venue.
You can now print out tickets from home and also have them scanned through the app, which is supposed to go live soon.
Daryl, when you went to the Box Office, it's the one in the Metro Centre, not the one in the Lightbox, right? My window is this afternoon and I work near there so I think I might just wander over instead of trying my luck on the wonky website.
I'm picking this afternoon and a friend of mine is currently about to go nuts confirming her picks now. She just got an "server is unable to service me" message. Anyone having such severe problems as this?
@ film_no_r, Thanks! I'll download that tiff app.
For those of you who ended up calling directly to set your picks, which number did you call? The main (1-888-599-8433)? Planning on calling while I attempt to use the online system just in case in goes down and trying to minimize transfers and whatnot since I'll be doing this during the middle of my work day.
Have you read back this thread to what happened yesterday - get her to call box office regardless how long she's on for.
is it possible to create an "off sale" string? believe that there was one last year. very difficult to go through al of these comments to find "off sale" posts.
Thanks Moira - I see the thread from yesterday which is scary considering a lot of these problems seem to exist today!
If a screening is labeled "Industry" on TIFFR, does that it will not be available to redeem from regular ticket packages? (Sorry for the ignorance, as this is the first time I've attended and I am trying to ready myself for the stampede tomorrow.)
Industry should not show up for regular ticket packages. You are limited to non-premiums and non industry.
So I think I must have lucked out as I was able to successfully select my films and check out. Thanks to everyone who posted tips on how the system worked. I ended up using Chrome, and I also made sure to disable every extension I had just in case too. My selections were ultimately all available, so I wonder if I got lucky and ended up avoiding any errors in the Find Tickets/Checkout process that everyone else was running into?
I've also created a separate posting for off-sale screenings. I've added @Tess' off-sale premium screenings to that list, plus everything off sale when I was just in at 11 AM today.
@Richard - I'm planning to use Google chrome too. Glad you got your selections!
To answer some questions:
1) The number I called was 1-416-599-8433.
2) Moira: What you say about "off sales" contributing to this sounds reasonable except there is no way that is possible. First, there are not that many members at the level going in yesterday. Second, not all those members bought packages. Third, not all the members who bought packages went online. Also, remember, tickets were not being held for people until AFTER they clicked Add to cart. Most people were not even able to get past that point. I only got to "Add to cart" once. In my case, two of the errors happened on "Find tickets," and at that point it doesn't matter how many people have selected the tickets...as long as you were able to select it you can move on to the next screen. The further proof of this is that when I finally did get in almost three hours later, on the phone, the ticket numbers were the same as when I had first gone in at 2 PM. They are assigned in sequence. Also, not a single one of the screenings I was trying for (all regular, no premium) are off sale even now. So there was plenty of inventory. That was definitely not what it was. It's a mathematical impossibility. I know you're just trying to help, though, and it's appreciated. :)
3) Yes, as film_no_r (great handle) said, you can now print tickets at home or use your phone. You can also transfer them to someone else. You do not have to go to the box office (unless you want to).
4) The Lightbox box office is only for Patrons Circle and up. Anyone below Patrons Circle must use the Festival Box Office in the Metro Centre (225 King St W).
5) As Andrea said, only Public screenings will show up when you go to select. Press & Industry screenings are not available to the public. There is at least one that says "combined" so it's both. But only what your package entitles you to will show up on your list of available screenings.
Thanks Richard for your tip too re disabling all chrome extensions. My slot is tmrw at 1pm. I'm nervous but it's good to know system is working for some.
@Andrea & @Larry: Thanks! ... As a newbie, I guess I would say that it would be really nice if the official TIFF website screening schedule (as opposed outside websites) actually delineated between the types of screenings a particular individual can and cannot attend, especially considering that they send an email "highly recommend[ing]" that you look at their schedule to plan out your redemption carefully. /endrant
That's no problem Larry I was just flinging suggestions out there. I don't know enough about the inner workings of IT to even figure what happened. It just seems bad that higher paying members are Guinea Pigs for lower paying members. We all appreciate any help/tips given. Really happy you got all your choices.
Steven: It should delineate that on the site. While the site was very wonky at the start, as far as I know they do show which screenings are public and which are Press & Industry. On each film's individual page, at the top where the screenings are, the P&I screenings have a P/I in red and are on a white background.
If you click to download the PDF, it only shows public screenings.
If you click to download the CSV, it shows both but they are clearly marked.
Steven from what I have experienced from the website unless you pressed "Press and Industry" only public screenings showed. If you click on actual film page it shows all screens but has in a red circle p/i for those screenings that only Press and Industry can attend. I have found with the App because I'm in UK it has reverted all times to UK and I can't see how to amend - I even tried changing country to Canada with no luck. The App schedule wise is very easy to follow.
I know Moira, no worries. It's just that TIFF has offered no explanation, apology, or anything. Their excuse about off-sales is laughable because, even NOW, there really are not that many films off sale and VERY few regulars. There were likely hundreds of tickets available, if not over a thousand, in some cases (like for Ryerson), at the time this was happening.
@Larry: TIFF definitely wasn't delineating between the two when TIFF sent us the email with the link and to the schedule we used the site to plan out our schedule last week.
The only thing we can all be grateful for is that while the system has major glitches at the moment, the tix themselves are not floating about in limbo in cyberspace unable to be accessed by box office lol.
Steven: You're 100% correct. For about the first 24 hours after the site was supposed to go live they were still building it. Many of us sat and watched with a combination of horror and amazement as they literally built it live. It was as if they thought it was supposed to go live on Wednesday, not Tuesday. At first, ALL screenings were listed as P&I. It was a mess. It wasn't until about 8 PM, if I recall, after about 11 hours, that the site was essentially correct. It wasn't until Wednesday morning that the PDF finally came out.
Anyone who went in on Tuesday, the day they were supposed to be able to see the schedule, got incorrect or missing information. It took awhile before everything was actually correct.
Current Wait times on the phone are 2 hours +. Would recommend dialing in way before your time just in case.
3hrs 36 mins.as of 12:42PM.
I realize there are a lot of issues to be found and discussed..
But have y'all tried the new TIFF app for iOS ? It's really great! There are some minor things like AM appearing as PM in some places, but overall, I'm giving it high marks. I might not have to carry a paper schedule with me this year (but I probably will as backup).
My App is UK time and I can't figure out how to rectify it. Changing country to Canada not helping.
Omg I'm dreading tmrw. there must still be lots of issues otherwise you'd hang up if things started to work. Good luck
The TIFF app is not available to Androids just yet, which is very odd. If you're going to introduce a new TIFF app, at least wait until both iOS and Android users can use the app. Sheesh!
Got as far as my 8th selection (of 25) and the save icon has been spinning for 10 mins. UGH!
Success! Had to hit cancel on one of my selections and reselect, but seemed to have gone through. Just got my confirmation!
You were on phone before for 3 hours did it website just all of a sudden start to work. Congrats you got your choices
I was able to place my 10 flex regular order.
A couple of tips
1) make sure you hit the green button that says "Save" for each movie and it must turn to a check mark for the system to recognize it. Make sure you select your ticket amount as it defaults to 2.
2) Scrolling the entire list is annoying, so use Control F in your browser to find your title or time.
3) If you need a voucher, keep track of how many you'll need, I don't think the system counts by default.
i know that it is somewhat comparing apples to oranges but -- we have been attending the palm springs festival for about the last 10 years. there are 180+ films and about 140,000 attendees and they have always had online scheduling without a hitch. you schedule online whenever you want - no $$$ to get preferential treatment and no scheduling window. yes there are 350+ films and 420,000 attendees but there shouldn't be so much trouble with the site this year and every year. are there no good IT people in canada? almost wish that they would go back to the "use green for your first choice and yellow for 2nd". love tiff, been going since 1998, but getting tiresome. oh by the way, tickets at palm springs are only $10.
Hi Eusabeia - does the preferred seating at RTH also apply during non-premieres? And is that what the "Fest Priority Adult" ticket was referring to?
Hi Maria TTE - The few regular RTH screenings I have are marked GEN1A, which the agent on the phone told me means general admission. Patrons are supposed to have a Priority line tho. We'll see.
LOL "almost wish that they would go back to the "use green for your first choice and yellow for 2nd". Yes, I remember those days well. As a Statesider, paying $150 for the OOTTP (Out of Town Ticket Package)...getting the package in the mail (hopefully) on the same day or the day after the schedule was announced...sitting down with the books and highlighting the selections...making sure to send it back via FedEx by Friday 5 PM...then waiting for the lottery and hoping you were in an early box!
Then there was the year that all the US-bound packages were held up at the border and we had 24 hours between the time we got the package until we had to send it back...then they extended the deadline to Monday because of that...then I finally got the email that said, "We are beginning a pilot program for possible future online ticket selection. if you'd like to be included reply with a yes." YES!
been there done all of that. also at PSFF if you are a pass holder, we aren't, you don't order tickets. you just get to film an hour before, their own line, and then get let in early so get best seats. they can't figure out why tiff pass holders pay so much and get so little.
With this new system were those of you who have been in did you use multiple devices til you spotted the movies appear or did you just stick with one device. Wasn't sure if it will let you access your account on various machines?.
Plus did you just refresh til movies appear - just incase your clock is out of sync with Ticketmaster system?. I know with old system it told you not to refresh - but that was a virtual waiting room.
Just went to the Members Box Office instead of attempting it online. The wait was about 45 mins (my window was at 3pm, but there were a bunch of people there who had a 1pm window but had issues with the site and ended up at the Box Office to resolve them). That being said, my friend went to the Box Office this morning and there was no line. If you're going in person, assume there will be a bit of a wait, and try to not arrive right on the hour mark.
Also, Pierre wasn't there but there's a new guy in charge of the system who came out to talk to the people in line a lot and ask everyone about the issues they were experiencing with the site (I didn't get his name). He also told us that every ticket will have a seat number printed on it (regardless of member level or screening status), but that's a Ticketmaster glitch and will not apply. So don't assume you have saved seats!
So what you're saying is the IT Dept don't really have a clue how to fix the issue if it's not been rectified yet?. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I'm in UK so have to rely online or phone. I think it was good advice to call in well before your time slot. This could be one very expensive call for me lol. What I don't get is how it's working for some and not others - is it the volume of people at any particular time pressing Find Tickets - is it different problems people are experiencing or all the same.
Sources inside tell me almost all the problems are the same (as I had yesterday) -- people get through Saving all their films and then hit FIND...and that's where they lose everything. Not all, but most people with issues -- that's the issue.
Hence the long hold times and long lines at box office for people lucky enough to go.
The reason some work and not others may have to do with the number of tickets in a package. For example, I had 40. Maybe someone with 10 is luckier because the system doesn't have to count to 40.
I am a PA to an IT Manager and I know how frustrating it is for people when systems don't work - the main thing is them realising there's an issue and discounting things to get to root of problem. It's when they're not admitting there's a problem and being honest about it that's where half the problem lies.
How many people realistically know about this blog to know there's even a problem. It's informing the membership that should be top priority so they at least aren't wasting hours wondering what's wrong.
There's quite a large volume of complaints on Twitter, including much of what you see here -- so they definitely know.
IMHO TIFF needs to send an email to everyone who bought a package informing them they may experience issues and recommending they call. Or at LEAST post something on Twitter. They have done neither.
I've just caught up with Twitter @TIFF_Help any advice they seem to give IMO insinuates the user is at fault. Larry when you had problems were you logging out and back in or just restarting. I'm seeing tweets where people did that and packages turned into vouchers.
Larry I had only 12 tickets to choose, so I don't think the number of tickets had much to do with it. I also suspect they have no idea how to fix this problem and clearly have not read what Daryl posted above.
Add that to the fact that the full TIFF schedule wasn't ready online for Tuesday and you have to start wondering about the competence of the IT people at TIFF. I don't ever recall running into all these issues before single ticket day.
TIFF members shell out a lot of money for things to be easier and more convenient and yet this doesn't seem to be the case at all. I certainly understand the frustration of those running into these issues, because I certainly wasn't very happy until I managed to speak with a box office attendant.
I got an e-mail from TIFF (not to me specifically, was a general e-mail) around 12 today, starting with "As package redemption started yesterday, some Members encountered a few issues while selecting tickets" (I'm sure you'll all get a kick out of that). The e-mail itself wasn't particularly helpful and didn't talk about what the root causes of the issues were, but to summarize some of the "tips" they provided (and I'm thinking these probably don't apply to anyone here that had issues): don't log in before your designated start time; don't click the shopping cart icon next to your name at the top right of the page; select "2016 Fest Package Regular Vouchers" (or I guess Premium vouchers depending on your package) if you haven't used up all your tickets picking movies.
Moira: I didn't ever log out and back in. They had warned us that once we logged in, if we logged out all we'd have would be vouchers so I definitely avoided that. I simply started over again with my selections.
Nicole: Daryl did write to them so they know. There are also many many people posting on Twitter, which are being retweeted by the largest unofficial TIFF site (TOfilmfest.ca) which TIFF follows. TIFF follows me, as well, and see all my Tweets. Everything you said is 100% true and echoes what I and others have been posting. Absolutely.
Richard: You are correct. All that is ridiculous. These are not people logging in too early (even if you do your packages do NOT show up for fulfillment), I don't know what the shopping cart icon is, and I don't know anybody who stopped picking movies and needed to pick vouchers. I DID see the "Vouchers" show up for selection but only AFTER my 40 films had been wiped out. In other words, I picked 40 films, everything looked fine, I clicked FIND, and then got an error and was told to pick 40 vouchers.
Here are just a few tweets that were retweeted by TOfilmfest.ca just from today and have been seen by TIFF:
Toronto Film Fest @TOfilmfest
not going well for some #TIFF16 #Contributors: problems with login, ticketing, cust-serv phone delay, off-sale… 😕
Toronto Film Fest @TOfilmfest
MT @JamesEditsFilms: tried checkout, it cleared selection… Logged out… it won't let me access… don't have time to wait 3hrs on phone #TIFF16
Toronto Film Fest @TOfilmfest
MT @addisonawe: on phone for 1hr trying to get #TIFF16 box-office — MT @neinein: 1hr struggling to buy tickets… Now 2.5 hour wait on phone?
Toronto Film Fest @TOfilmfest
MT @MarkSab: ticket select… broken as everything #TIFF16 has done on web this year — RT @RealtorJody: bad every year but this is worst yet!
Toronto Film Fest @TOfilmfest
MT @ydavey: Not sure why I bought #TIFF16 premium-package… I hear 4 films I want are off-sale… $400 down the drain…
twitter.com/RealtorJody/st…
Jody McDonnell @RealtorJody
@TOfilmfest Unfortunately this #Contributor cannot make my selections and cannot reach @TIFF_NET - disappointed I upgraded my donation $$
Do they have extended phone hours during package selection or just 10-7pm phone and 10-10pm in person(I think). My friend is Thu at 9am so if she has issues won't it be til 10am before anyone answers?. Does the box office allow you to go on hold before 10am or is there no point calling until 10am.
Box office hours are 9am-7pm Eastern.
I chose the option to print tickets at home; they first need to be downloaded as a PDF from Ticketmaster. I had thought that the PDF would just be sent as an email attachment but it seems that it will take at least another 45 minutes to go through, screening by screening, and make sure I get all the PDF downloads. The page explicitly says that the entire page must be printed and brought to the screening, even though it has a huge dark-background TIFF logo in the middle of it that is just a huge waste of ink.
I don't think I got the PDFs yet - did you already receive them?
Yes, how do you get the PDFs? My friend transferred tickets to me but I have no idea how to access them. I can see them in my account but not actually generate them.
Tess, I'm not certain but you probably can't open your PDF as it's likely because the tickets haven't officially been "released" yet. Those who are redeeming packages right now (and those who have purchased individual tickets already) who have selected 'Will Call' really don't get them until September 4th. The PDF might be ready then.
This option is new though, so I'm just speculating.
I was able to save the pdf to my computer as soon as I completed the ticket redemption. At the bottom of the order confirmation email, there's a link to "Manage Tickets". The URL is something like https://oss.ticketmaster.com/aps/tiff/EN//account/login and after logging in, you get a home screen; one panel is headed "Manage My Tickets". Underneath that it says "My Ticket Options ... TRANSFER / Transfer tickets to friends. ... PRINT / Print your ticket." There's a black button beside that labelled "manage my tickets" (all lower case). Click that button. It shows a September calendar, with the titles of films you selected, on the appropriate dates. To print tickets for any movie, click on the film title, it shows the "seats" you have, now click the button labelled "Print-at-home", now click the checkbox(es) for the seat(s) whose ticket you wish to print. Then look for a button near the top right of the panel labelled "print(2)" (if you want 2 tickets in the same pdf, otherwise I guess you could save them to separate pdfs). Now you get another dialog box with the heading "Below are your selected seats to print." Click on the button "Continue to print". And you get another screen, with two tabs at the top, one labelled "PRINT" the other "CONFIRMATION". Now click the checkbox beside "I agree to the Terms of Use." (No option to disagree with the Terms of Use!) Now click "submit". Now it gives you the option to open or save the pdf file named 160829-nnnnn.pdf where 160829 is today's date, and nnnnn appears to be either a serial number or confirmation number. You click on "save file" and "OK". Now change the name of the file to "Nocturama Sept 8.pdf" so you know which film's ticket is in the file. How many clicks is this so far? And that's just for the first movie. (If you have 50 movies redeemed on your package, you're now 2% of the way finished printing your tickets.) If there's any way to generate a pdf for all tickets in a package as a batch, please let me know here.
There is, but it's kind of hidden.
1) Under Manage my Tickets, you see My Ticket Options. Under that it should say Transfer and Print. To the right of that click "manage my tickets."
2) Now you should see September calendar. At the far right there's a little icon that says "Advanced Options." Click that and you wait while it says "your request is being processed."
3) Now and Advanced Options dialogue box shows up.
4) There's a dropdown that says Choose an Action. There you can choose Transfer tickets to friends or Print tickets. If you select Print tickets all your tickets should show up with check boxes.
5) Scroll down and click "done."
...and proceed from there!
Thank you Larry, that will certainly save a lot of time!
Thanks for the tips guys! I was able to print all my tickets. Again, TIFF should have done a much better job explaining how this works. Most people, including me, expected PDFs to be sent to us. UGH TIFF!!!
I did my selection just now. At first no films would show up at all under the dates. I panicked but after clearing all my browser cache settings / cookies it finally loaded properly. After that it went smoothly thankfully. I selected the mobile ticket option but when I view my mobile ticket it says "Barcode Unavailable" so I wonder how that will work or maybe they add the barcodes later? Anyways even with this option chosen it still let me Print At Home PDF's anyways.
I don't have the list of films when I click to purchase, all I have is what is always there (there is my package and then other films that are playing right now stuff like that) and it's what I assume is there if you try when it's not your window, but my e-mail clearly says 8/30/2016 10:00 ... Help!
Click "continue" to the right of your package name.
thanks it worked. However I did not get a print at hom option, I did online account, I'm not sure how get my tickets now...
After you log in you should see a section as before "Manage My Tickets," and under that "My Ticket Options" with "Transfer" and "Print" under it. To the right of that is a button "manage my tickets."
The rest of the procedure for printing I posted above. :)
Nevermind, I got it. Thanks a lot for the help, I was so lost.
Piece of advice to anyone thinking about the "digital" option. Don't.
This is the first year they will be using this system. You don't want to get to the venue, only to find the system is down, and you may have to go to will call, or the box office to get it sorted, when you are rushing to get in, or losing a good spot in line, or watching as other people enter the theatre ahead of you.
Print them yourself.
I agree with Paul. Imagine you're hurrying in to get a good seat. Phone dies. Or screen goes dark. Or screen changes to something else. You can't bring up the bar code. They fumble with the scanner. Meanwhile people are streaming into the venue all around you.
Print them out.
Awesome, thanks Larry!
Ditto Paul and Larry, I'd print the tickets to be safe. Your best option is not to trust TIFF technology ;)
This is after I printed my tickets...Btw,tickets purchased on Aug27.
Recommendation: To print your tickets at a later time without incurring further charges, save the pdf version of your ticket(s) onto your computer. If you are unable to print your ticket(s) please make sure you download Adobe Acrobat Reader 10.1 or higher here.
Note: It is advised to print your tickets immediately. Not printing your tickets now could result in you not being able to do so closer to the event start time. If you choose to print these tickets, any previously printed or issued for these seats will no longer be valid for entry. Only the most recently printed tickets will be valid.
Also,make sure you get confirmation email before you log out.
Thanks to all of the printing tips - and Richard for having this site in the first place. I actually got through the BO last night around 7PM to ask about accessing the PDFs (whether they would be e-mailed), and they told me to go the account to retrieve them. I told the rep that there were no instructions with the confirmation email and he apologized.
I get this is the first year they're doing this but at least an email telling us that would be helpful. Well at least I don't have to waste time standing online to get my tickets this year, which will save a lot of time.
In my email confirming slot time it states a PDF will come with email - which is obviously not the case. There was definitely no details lile anyone has described
All this printing information is helpful. But I purchased the TIFF Soiree ticket weeks ago and I cannot print out that ticket. I'll be buying tickets for a few films on single ticket day and I hope I don't encounter the same problem. Sheesh!
I agree with the comments about the digital option. When everyone streams in at once, will there be enough scanners, whereas any usher can rip up a ticket. And for those who aren't great with their phones, they will slow up the line.
I prefer paper copies because as this is the first year for digital, and as we have seen with the new computer system, there are certain to be kinks that need to be worked out.
It really is quite nice.
http://i1266.photobucket.com/albums/jj533/Larry_Richman/14117895_1096781230359630_7890666614608192304_n_zpsyioqz4n5.jpg
As first time TIFF attendees, we logged in this morning at our appointed time for redemption of our ticket package with much trepidation and ended up getting tickets for 14 of the 15 screenings we wanted the most on the first try (including La La Land and American Pastoral) ... Thanks to all of you (especially Larry Richman) who posted specific instructions on how to navigate the site (including printing tickets in mass)! Ya'll are awesome! (That's we say it down here in TX)
Indeed, serious cheers to Larry and everyone who's helped get others through TIFF2016calypse.
@Steven B - where in Texas? I'm coming up from Austin for the full festival.
@Brian: Austin!
Thanks so much, guys, it's truly my pleasure. For about 10 years I was a film festival journalist and TIFF was my specialty. Every year I wrote a series of articles on how to navigate the festival -- Tips & Tricks -- etc. Nothing gave me more pleasure than to help folks cut through the confusion and have a good time. Despite my own frustration and, to some extent, anger with TIFF this year (and in the past), I still remember in my early years when I relied on veterans for help.
I know some of you have been attending TIFF a LOT longer than me but this system is new so we're all newbies at this. I guess going in Sunday made me a bit of a guinea pig but the goal is for everyone to go and have a good time.
IF YOU ARE HAVING PROBLEMS:
You can email Pierre Bois. He is Senior Manager, Membership & Engagement at TIFF. YOu can reach him at membership (at) tiff (dot) net
He has offered to help solve your ticketing issues!
@Larry Richman - meant to post this before but was TIFF'd out for a couple of days! This is my 14th year attending TIFF and I totally remember the days when we had to wait for the fex ex package, mark the films on paper, re-package it and get the package fed exed back that day. I can't believe we had to deal with that. I also remember the time when the packages were held up at Fed ex in Tennessee somewhere. Sheer panic!! Picking movies online was a game changer but TIFF still has to do a better job communicating - especially when introducing a new process. Send an email to all of us explaining the system and who we can contact for issues, instead of having us fumble around. How difficult is that? We all would appreciate it. My answer to that is they don't know how it all works yet....
Yes, agree on all counts. I have been monitoring Twitter, this blog, and many other outlets and there has been virtually nothing official from TIFF about any of this. Why not a followup email to all package purchasers with a note about the issues and some hints/tips, etc.? Not even an email to Members, not that they deserve special treatment -- but, as some have pointed out, the more one spent on a membership this year the worse was the treatment. The higher level members were the guinea pigs. It's gone easier for lower level and general public (not perfect, but better). Many people bought, renewed, and/or upgraded their memberships this year (many by scrimping and saving all year to do so, they're not all wealthy) just out of loyalty to TIFF, to show support, and to get that earlier time slot, and instead of being rewarded they were penalized. Yet TIFF has not reached out to ANY of them, or anyone else for that matter, about all these issues.
There has been NO mention of any issues at all from the official TIFF Twitter. None. One person in the Membership office has individually tweeted to members offering help but has not taken to Twitter publicly to do so. He saw all my tweets and the only one he "Liked" was one where I praised the phone rep I spoke with.
It should not be incumbent upon any customers to have to reach out to TIFF -- find the appropriate email, or know whose Twitter handle to use -- when the issues are so widespread. A good organization is proactive on issues like this. They get the jump on it and communicate. They don't cower behind their desks hoping nobody notices them. As some of us know, yes, there are issues every year. But this year is different. It's not the same old same old. They ARE going to lose members over this, repeat visitors, and potential membership upgrades -- UNLESS they reach out and do something, anything.
Wow, the system was so complicated this year. But no technical glitches for me today, I have all my tickets saved and printed. Phew! Now for trading...
It'll be interesting how the site will be accessed on Sunday since package holders only saw either premium or regular at any one time. I think with so much off sale quickly there will be higher volumes than normal
I have decided this is my last year. I started coming in 1986 when it was "the people's festival." The festival has always had issues, but now I have to pay more to see less. When they started moving films to the premium category, I thought it was a cash grab. I understand the movement to membership and if I was a local, I would join in a heartbeat. In past years out-of-towners were treated better. I spend thousands of dollars for hotel, food, and clothes, shoes while in town. Now they pretty much could care less if we come to the festival. Not fond of the film stacking and dearth of daytime films at all venues. Good thing I no longer order 30 tickets for I can't see how I could fit them in over nine days I am in Toronto.
And I also want to complain about lack of any notice of problems. I spent a day trying to order my package for Visa card holders with nary a whisper they had issues with accepting card numbers. Only because I have a friend who has a friend in Toronto did I know this was happening. From TIFF;crickets.
If it weren't for my love of film, I would have quit years ago. There were two years I skipped the festival and attended another. I love Toronto and will be coming back to the city, but the festival is not for people like me anymore.
Anyone have a ticket for all governments lie tonight at 630 pm? Please reply!
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