Day 1

Well, that's Day 1 in the books.  It was a questionable start but in the end I'm still pleased I managed to see 1hr and 15 mins of Bright Star with a likely chance of seeing the ending tomorrow night.

Our attempts to rush Broken Embraces was a complete success, from securing spots in line to scoring good seats.  Making fast friends in line and getting a chance to catch up with old faces while waiting.  The best part of the first few days of TIFF is always seeing the people that you only get to encounter once a year :)  Followed closely by the swag lol!  Nothing grand yet (unlike the festival where I got a webcam on the first day) but the Blackberry people did come by and try to help us install a cool new BB TIFF app onto our phones!

Penelope Cruz did come to the Elgin but blew by in a breeze far, FAR from our views from the rush line.  But the real stargazers were the startling crowd position across the street from us... hope you guys had better luck.

Not to toot our own horn, but the Elgin & Winter Garden is still the best place to rush a film.  And even better when the film turns out to be pretty great!  Broken Embraces is a popular draw of course due to Director Pedro Almodovar and actress Penelope Cruz, and I have to say, if you liked Volver, you really need to see this one.  The plot wasn't nearly as abstract as my good friend Chris Beer made it to sound as he was summarizing it from the book while we were in line -- in hindsight I really wish I'd taken a video of that!  It is coming out in theatres soon, so if you don't catch it at TIFF, be sure to see it when it's released.

It's off to bed for Ada now, I have to make an appearance at the office tomorrow, before an 8 hr volunteer shift, which will most likely be capped off with the Midnight Madness screening of Daybreakers -- what can I say MM?  I just can't stay away!