Every couple of weeks, the Arlene Bynon Show on Canada Talks calls me up to chat about the latest in entertainment news, but when it comes to the Toronto International Film Festival, they usually have me on 3 or 4 times to talk about all the news–before, during, and after all of the insanity descends on Toronto.
While I certainly haven’t earned the title, Arlene called me Mr. TIFF, so who am I to argue? This is my 13th year covering the festival, but I’m hardly the definitive expert by any means. TIFF just happens to be one of the things I’m really passionate about, and I’m proud to be one of the returning journalists covering the festival for another year.
Other journalists who have covered the festival longer could probably talk about this at length, but for me, it’s still amazing to realize just how much the festival has changed in 13 years. The press office was once in a strip mall at Yonge and Bay street, the press conferences used to be large enough to seat maybe 40 people (including the talent), and the majority of the press screenings were in the now demolished Cumberland Four Alliance Cinema.
While the festival has changed a lot, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I’ll happily wax poetic about my good old days when I started attending the festival, but TIFF today is an amazing event that has become one of the greatest film festivals in the world.
Listen to the segment from a few weeks ago as Arlene and I chat about the galas at TIFF 2013, and stay tuned for lots of coverage from the festival over the next two weeks. You can catch The Arlene Bynon Show on Canada Talks on Sirius XM radio.
Photo: Dina Pugliese and I on the TIFF red carpet in 2008.
Join our list
Subscribe to our mailing list and get weekly updates on our latest contests, interviews, and reviews.
Thank you for subscribing.
Something went wrong.
