TIFF And Not Die (Patreon)

Among the many bummers of last year—and I should note that I've been quite fortunate personally, in that almost nobody I know has gotten sick and the few Covid cases among young cousins and whatnot have been very mild—was having to miss the Toronto International Film Festival, which I'd attended for 20 consecutive years at that point. The 2020 edition was inaccessible to Americans even remotely, as digital screenings were geoblocked for every country other than Canada. This year, however, one can "attend" from home, and I'll be doing so with my usual Press/Industry badge. Not all of the films I want to see are available to stream, sadly, as certain sales agents apparently insisted on holding in-person screenings only; still, I'll be able to watch a sizable percentage of the Cannes and NYFF slates, which is good enough for me. 

In certain respects, this'll be gloriously convenient. Rather than being locked into specific timeslots all day, I can watch films at my leisure during a 48-hour window, taking a break (or a nap) whenever I feel like it. And the bed's literally ten steps from the screen. Still, I've tentatively scheduled five films most days, just as I've always done when attending normally, so expect the same temporary suspension of the request poll and daily drive-by roundups that those of you who've been here for a while will remember from TIFF '19. It's still gonna be pretty exhausting, I suspect, though for better and (mostly) worse I won't lose sleep due to chatting with roommates Scott Tobias and Noel Murray until way too late. Hope to see you again next year, gents. 

Here's the aforementioned schedule, which as always is highly subject to change (and it'll be even easier to substitute films with the lengthy viewing window). I'm not 100% sure what "limited availability" means, but I've placed those at the top of the day with the intention of firing 'em up the moment they're made available. Guessing they cut folks off after a certain number, "only 200 people can view" or something along those lines. Anyway, if you see what you perceive as a glaring omission, let me know, as I basically just prioritized Cannes + NYFF + a handful of favored directors, then threw in the least-boring-looking Discovery titles. (The bracketed text generally indicates why I scheduled it.)