That smorgasbord of celluloid known as the Toronto International Film Festival is yet again upon us, and you’ve doubtless heard all about the impressive array of famous folk who will descend upon our fair city, eat at its posh restaurants, and then leave us hung over until the next edition arrives.
This year is the most glamorous in recent memory, boasting a virtual taxonomy of celebs (including the likes of Orlando Bloom, Cate Blanchett, Cameron Diaz, Gwyneth Paltrow, Justin Timberlake, and Reese Witherspoon) and an equally impressive array of auteurs, including usual suspects Tim Burton, Cameron Crowe, Guy Ritchie, and homegrown heroes David Cronenberg (already getting tons of advance buzz for his A History of Violence) and Atom Egoyan (there are mixed reviews for his mystery noir Where the Truth Lies, but Egoyan is always worth watching).
But how does one participate in such an affair, and how can one possibly resist being blinded by the luminance of so many stars in the same place at the same time? Here’s a brief guide festival guide (complete with this writer’s biases, of course).

Develop a game plan:

There are two major strategies for attending the festival: the first of these is to get the jump on all your friends for the fall releases-or, what will inevitably come out in the theatres in the near future. This way, the next time someone asks you if you’d like to go see Tim Burton’s The Corpse Bride, you can impress (or alienate) them by announcing (for all within earshot to hear) that you saw it at “the festival” and that it was no Nightmare Before Christmas.
The other way to approach the festival is to hunt out films that are going to be harder for you to find-the ones that will eventually play in the city, but likely at the Carleton with an audience consisting of you and two other people. These are more likely to be the foreign films (or, let’s be honest, Canadian films), but if you catch them at the festival, you’ll probably see them with an appreciative audience, and are more likely to impress your friends when you announce that you saw the Dardennes Brothers speak before their much lauded film L’Enfant, than, let’s say, Ivan Reitman. For this reason alone, it’s almost better to pick the most obscure films that you can. These are inevitably found in programmer Colin Geddes’ Midnight Madness section of the fest, and are invariably the most messed-up and entertaining of the bunch.
“Homegrown” doesn’t mean “lame”:

With three films in the prestigious Gala program, this is a banner year for Canadian film. But that’s not all-this year also features new films from other excellent craftsmen. After working for the last several years directing TV series, Toronto’s Clement Virgo (Rude) returns to his home and native land with his new offering Lie With Me. Thom Fitzgerald (hopefully returning to form after The Event) directs a stellar cast (including Stockard Channing, Chloe Sevigny, and Lucy Liu) in his latest film 3 Needles. Finally, master documentarian Allan King follows up his unflinching portrait of death and dying (Dying at Grace) with Memory of Max, Claire, Ida and Company, another sombre examination of human mortality.
No-brainers:

While no one should ever place too much faith in film critics, early reaction suggests there are at least a few must-sees at this year’s fest, including: Roman Polanski’s Oliver Twist, L’Enfant by the Dardennes Brothers, 06/05: The Sixth of May by murdered Dutch director Theo Van Gogh, The Passion of Joshua: The Jew, by Pasquale Scimeca, and Le Temps qui Reste by French lensman François Ozon.

Former Varsity film critic Colin Tait has retired himself to the milder climes of Vancouver, where he is trying to adjust to the more languid pace of life as he embarks on a Masters degree in film at UBC. He will kindly be sending dispatches from the West Coast every so often, because he simply cannot get enough of this fine publication.-Ed.