Good grief. Where did the year go?

In just over two weeks, the 35th Toronto International Film Festival gets underway, and the organizers have already promised it’ll be bigger and better than any TIFF before it. (That scoffing sound you just heard didn’t come from me, btw.)

300 films over 11 days and, per the website, some 300,000 tickets available.

This year, the fest has not only moved up their annual ticket ordering/lottery schedule, giving folks plenty of time to make their selections and pick-up their tickets before Labor Day, but they’ve added an extra day of screenings on the second Sunday. The much ballyhooed TIFF Bell Lightbox will also open mid-festival, and will feature a number of free films, events and the like to show people where all the “building fund” fees collected over the years went. With the increasing outrageousness of ticket prices and tacked-on surcharges, there had better be free cake at this point, that's all I'm saying.

Like last year, I’ll be attending the fest on a dramatically reduced budget. But I’m hoping that means, like last year, I’ll actually have a really pleasant experience and see some really great films. Fingers crossed!

In the meantime, catch up on Moviepie at recent TIFFs gone by (2007, 2008 or 2009), or for more TIFF 2010 info, including how to get tickets and which films screen when, you can visit:

* the TIFF tickets & packages page

* the TIFF films & schedules page (which will be fully updated on August 24th to include all films and their screening dates)

* the TIFF programmes page, which groups all the screenings according to programme (again, this’ll be updated in full on the 24th)

Happy festing!

[Note: regular TIFF blogging will begin once the festival does.]