The festival released details about how the 2020 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival will operate. Full details can be found at https://tiff.net/tiff-20-faq.
Some interesting changes:
- All in-person and drive-in screenings will have assigned seating, and there is no tiered pricing (but there still are Regular and Premium screenings, for both digital and live).
- There are no ticket packages this year. You can only buy individual tickets.
- Individual tickets can only be purchased in singles or pairs; there is a maximum of 2 tickets per account. The site doesn't elaborate, but I'm assuming that means a single account can purchase a maximum of 2 tickets per screening. Important to note, in order to enforce social distancing in theatres, it sounds like the festival has arranged the seats in singles or pairs; if all the single seats are sold out, then if there are any pairs available and you still want to purchase, you have to buy both seats (they won't split a pair).
- Digital film screenings are region locked to Canada. The Hot Docs film festival did something similar this year, although they locked their films down to Ontario. This will be a big thing for those folks from out-of-town that would come to the festival each year, especially since the border is still generally closed to non-essential travel, and even then, you have to self-isolate for 2 weeks upon arrival.
- Once a digital screening goes live, you have a maximum of 24 hours to watch it. This is a nice change, especially for those who were never able to take time off of work to attend the festival, and it eliminates the problem of missing out of films because the screening times conflict.
- If you see films at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, masks are mandatory except when seated in-cinema.
- There are no rush lineups at any theatre this year. For ticket holders, there will be no indoor lineups; all lineups will be outside, rain or shine, although lobby passes are available for people requiring accessibility considerations.
- Pricing breaks down as follows:
- In-cinema screenings at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, and digital screenings using Bell Digital Cinema
- Regular: $19 including taxes and fees
- Premium: $26 including taxes and fees
- Drive-in screenings at the Visa Skyline Drive-In at CityView, and RBC Lakeside Drive-In at Ontario Place
- Car with 1-2 people: $49 including taxes and fees
- Car with 3+ people: $69 including taxes and fees
- Open-Air Cinema screenings at West Island Open Air Cinema at Ontario Place
- Lawn Pod for 2 people: $38 including taxes and fees
Personally, I'm going to do the digital screenings this year and I might catch a drive-in screening, but I'll be skipping any in-person ones, despite the precautions the festival is taking.
