TIFF details venues, pricing for COVID-era fest
The Toronto International Film Festival has announced that this year’s scaled-back celluloid celebration will include a mix of in-person screenings, drive-in showings and virtual experiences.
Festival audiences will be able to enjoy socially distanced indoor screenings at TIFF Bell Lightbox and at the Isabel Bader Theatre. But adding to the experience this year, festival organizers will showcase titles under the stars at the Visa Skyline DriveIn at CityView, RBC Lakeside Drive-In at Ontario Place, and West Island Open Air Cinema at Ontario Place.
Digital viewings and inperson screenings will both be priced the same, with regular showings priced at $19 and premium tickets costing $26, including taxes and fees.
TIFF’s drive-in experiences will be priced according to the number of people in the car, with vehicles of one or two priced at $49, while cars of three or more costing $69, including taxes and fees.
TIFF Patrons Circle Members get first crack at the limited number of seats beginning Aug. 28, with sales to the general public starting Sept. 5.
Public digital screenings are geolocked to Canada and will be streamed through a digital TIFF app, which was created for the festival and will be available in the Apple App Store on Sept. 9.
The 50 films screening in Toronto this year include the buzzworthy Nomadland, a road movie led by twotime Oscar winner Frances McDormand; the urban drama
Concrete Cowboy, with Idris Elba; the Halle Berry-directed
Bruised; Ammonite, a lesbiandrama starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan; Regina King’s drama about a young Muhammad Ali, One Night in
Miami; Mira Nair’s adaptation of Vikram Seth’s A Suitable
Boy; and Good Joe Bell, which stars Mark Wahlberg as a father who embarks on a walk across America to raise awareness of bullying following the suicide of his son.
The festival’s opening night feature will be Spike Lee’s filmed version of David Byrne’s Broadway smash
American Utopia.
The 45th edition of the festival will run Sept. 10-19.