Saturday, August 19, 2006

Celebrity Spotting

While most people go to the festival to see the films, there's always a substantial number who turn out to see the celebrities. So how do you catch a glimpse of your favourite star?

  • Most of the big commercial films with big stars have their festival premiere at a gala performance at Roy Thomson Hall. If you can get a ticket, great, but the galas are usually popular, so you may not be able to. But you can always line up outside by the red carpet and watch the stars arrive.
  • Each movie at the festival shows twice. Cast and crew will sometimes attend the first screening (and more rarely the second), and may do a Q&A after the movie. Once again, if you can't get a ticket, you can try waiting outside the theatre to see them arrive. Note that stars don't always attend, and if they do they usually arrive just before the movie starts, so they won't be lingering on the red carpet.
  • Stars are also more likely to show up for movies which they have a substantial attachment to, i.e. films they have directed, produced, or written, or those which were more a labour-of-love.
  • Many stars stay at hotels close to the festival. Inevitably word spreads if a star is spotted at one of them. Pretty much any upscale hotel in downtown Toronto will have someone of note staying there.
  • MuchMusic (at Queen and John Streets) sometimes has events during the festival. Last year Kirsten Dunst and Orlando Bloom showed up for an event promoting Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown, and Queen Street was blocked off to accommodate the crowds.

1 comments:

Hey at Roots we're planning on having lots of events during the festival at our store at 100 Bloor St West in Toronto. Hello! magazine and CTV's Etalk Daily will be doing a photo lounge and AOL/Moviefone will be doing filming for their Unscripted series. Tons of hot stars to see... also on September 7th at 11am we're planning a concert with a big name band open to the public on Bloor St. If you check out www.roots.com in early Sept we'll release all the details!

My experiences at the Toronto International Film Festival. Note this blog is not affiliated with the Toronto International Film Festival Group or the festival itself.
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