Some of the discussion here in Toronto (when everyone's not fashionably crying into their appletinis about the collapse of the indie film circuit) revolves around the festival's odd decision to stop all press and industry screenings at around 630pm. For those of us weaned on a steady diet of admittedly delirium-inducing 9am-2am screenings at other festivals, it's at first a bit disorienting to figure out what to do with all that free time (what's that? "try exercising"? Ah yes, very funny).
After a few days here, though, the reasoning is clear: someone has to attend all the parties that start at 7pm. On one block alone tonight I walked by several different festivals parties: two for films, one for a fashionable European distributor (where the sunglasses-clad Wong kar-wai popped in for a bit), and none that I had been invited to. There were also two rival national-cinema parties: one for the Germans, the other for the Norwegians (no word of any hooliganism trouble), as well as a few others scattered throughout town. Rumours of rival karaoke parties, though, are greatly unfounded. Last night the rooftop of a fancy downtown hotel was taken over by a Hollywood throwdown and the neckless men who provided security for it; with the rooftop closed, various star-fuckers were left scanning the tables of the hotel's other bar, where cries of "is that...??" rang through the oppressively cologned air.
And let's not even talk about the worst kind of parties: not the ones you weren't invited to, but the ones you hadn't even heard about. Just like how it's the films that you missed that are everyone's favorites, it's the party that you didn't know existed that was everyone's best time ever.
Labels: Festival Ambassador
# posted by Jason Sanders @ 9/08/2008 02:18:00 AM
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