TIFF is in a State of Limbo

I was tempted to attend the Toronto International Film Festival, at the very least for the press screenings at the Scotia Bank theatre —those are taking place between September 9th to the 13th. I’ve been trying to weigh my options and figure out if it’s worth the trek or not. Since there will be limited capacity in the theatres due to COVID, will it be harder to get into some of the bigger titles being screened?

I emailed the TIFF press office to get more details because, thus far, they have been very vague about their plans for press and industry attendees. Suffice to say, It does sound like the Canadian government have really tied their hands here. With COVID-19 cases starting to ramp up again due to the delta variant, we are likely looking at another mostly virtual tiff for journalists. The lack of red tape being removed is frustrating but understandable:

Hi Jordan,

Thanks for your email.

Although press outside Canada might be able to travel to Toronto, please note that in-person opportunities will be extremely limited. At this time, all talks and press conferences will take place online on the TIFF Bell Digital Talks platform; there are currently no in-person Press & Industry events. There will be some Public in-person screenings with very limited Press & Industry access as well as a few dedicated Press & Industry screenings with limited seating capacities during the first few days of the festival. Press & Industry can still access films on the TIFF Digital Cinema Pro platform (select films may be geo-blocked to some regions).

The decision to travel to Canada for the festival is entirely up to you, however we ask that you're clear on what in person opportunities will be available to press before you arrange flight/hotel accommodations. The TIFF 2021 schedule will be announced toward the end of August.

We continue to work with the Canadian Government and factor the safety of all our attendees into our planning. With that said, we can't provide details (other than what's been announced) regarding in person access for press at this stage. The pandemic situation in Ontario continues to change and TIFF is adjusting accordingly within the limitations provided to us from the government.

Hope that makes things more clear.
Best,
Danie
TIFF Press Office

The response I got from them reads rather pessimistically. They don’t want to assure anything. As if to say, “ if you are willing to plan out a trip to TIFF then you have been warned, there are restraints and we can’t guarantee that it’ll be worth it.”

I get it, things are getting bad again with the virus but it’s a real shame that one of the best film festivals in the world will be mostly digital for the second year in a row. I would have loved to have seen “Last Night in Soho,” “The Power of Dog,” “Benediction,” “Petite Maman,” “The Humans” and others on the big screen, alas, as they say, welcome to the new normal …