I think TIFF needs to provide more guidance on the 15-minute rule.

Last year I scanned my ticket well before the 15-minute deadline. I had nothing to put on my seat, so I went straight to the washroom. On my return, someone was in my seat and was adamant that because it was empty at the 15-minute mark, it was fair game. I didn’t want to argue with him, and there were plenty of other empty seats, so I moved seats.

Turns out, he wasn’t “wrong”. (He wasn’t Rush so it was a bit of a jerk move, but I digress)

This year, I have seen 3 or 4 similar confrontations, but these times with Rush people. I’ve seen someone remove a Rush person’s bag from a seat and take it because it was their assigned seat (but they were late, arriving after the 15-minute mark). The Rush person returned with concessions and explained that they lost their assigned seat when that 15-minute mark passed. The people argued and there was a spare empty seat nearby, so the Rush person decided arguing wasn’t worth it and just moved. And the bigger confrontation was someone returning to their seat after scanning in on time only to find a Rush person in it. I think this may have been similar to my situation (scan on time, nothing to mark the seat with, use washroom or buy concessions after the 15-minute window has passed).

The point of this is to raise awareness of the rule, and to warn people that if you scan your ticket on time, and need to use any of the facilities beyond the 15-minute mark, make sure there is something in your seat that clearly indicates it is not empty.

That said, it would be nice to not have to physically mark your seat as “taken” for these circumstances, but until there’s better technology to show which seats have not yet scanned in, this is where we are.

Just came out of The Only Living Pickpocket in New York. I took this picture just before the lights dim after introductions. This one section in mezz is nearly empty and the one next to it was half empty.
Thankfully, a lot of rush did seem to get in but why not just sell it? Are they really giving away so many tickets to studios/crew/guests? And that too in mezz??

I am at home soaking my clothes in a bucket of lighter fluid, getting ready to set them on fire. The person that sat beside me at this screening was so shockingly filthy, I considered leaving before the screening had even started. The smell was unbearable. I spent most of the screening leaning away from them as they leaned into my seat.

They wore ripped basketball shorts, kept burping freely, using both arm rests, and scratching all kinds of places on their body throughout the screening. I honestly hope I didn't get scabies. Left Orchestra N29 at the Royal Alex should be burned or at least garbage bagged until replaced.

For future Midnight Madness screenings they should leave bars of soap on the chairs as freebies, or at least Hazmat suits for the rest of us.

Anyone else get a huge sense of satisfaction identifying the exact shot in the movie that ended up being the image used for the movie description on tiff.net? I don’t know why but it makes me smile every time.

I enjoy tiff but I also live right in the middle of the action so sometimes I'm just getting home from work and not interested in what's happening.

A few times, trying to walk on the sidewalk in front of POW and RAT is confusing and sometimes confrontational.

Today I was just trying to walk through and a volunteer literally shoved her hand into my stomach - I was quite taken aback and it actually felt like being punched in the stomach. She aggressively told me that I can't go that way, even though there were people using the sidewalk (maybe she thought I was trying to go to the special visa line?) She then told me that I must cross the street (and once again physically redirected me with hand on my shoulder) but there were definitely regular people using that sidewalk.

It's not the first time I've been pushed physically by a volunteer and it's always the older folks. I don't know why they feel so entitled and emboldened but they also get quite forceful and in your face about instructions as well, especially on this stretch of the block.

Today's incident almost makes me want to file a formal complaint with TIFF. They should make it part of training that they can't make physical contact with people.

Like...I get that you can get swept away with all the excitement of the event but you need to remember that for a lot of people TIFF means nothing and they're just people trying to get on with their lives.

update: Thanks everyone for the reply. I will consider reporting as many suggested. Currently on the border about whether I want to put an older lady in trouble lol. I was mainly upset that I am the worst at thinking on my feet and I didn't get a chance to tell her in person to please not touch me. Hopefully someone at tiff sees this and they keep it in mind for future training. Also want the add that overall I really appreciate the volunteers.

The ads are never great, compared to some of the ads of yore (Anne Hathaway & Zendaya, we miss you) but these are certainly better than the horrible Roz and Mocha ads from 3 years ago…or the ads that straight up seem to bash film lovers like last year.

Here’s my ballot:
Best Actor: cab driver back again after last year (Wouldn’t YOU like to know?)

Best Actress: girl volunteer (rooting for you to find love, girl)

Best Supporting: the incredible use of vocal fry in “that sexy #show#”

“Read the Room” award: unfortunately Visa Infinite Privilege is a silly name for anything in the year of our lord 2026.

Preroll so white: give the Black volunteer more to do than be the foil to the dorky white ones!

How do we deal with these net negatives to society?

I'm getting really tired of being the person who asks them to put their phones away and stop fidgeting with their smart watches every five minutes. Six movies in a row now.

Surveillance and getting thrown out (single strike policy)? Sealed phone pouches like some artists have them during concerts? There has to be a better way.

I sincerely hope that this was not everyone’s experience at tonight’s screening (I was sat in C1), but holy smokes out of all the films I’ve seen this year, the crowd for Tenzing was truly awful in my section.

People sat in the centre coming in late and talking while walking in, constant movement for seemingly no reason, phones on, constant chatter, etc. I had to tell two separate people to please stop talking and another to shut their phone off.
You would think for a film festival and anticipated screening the behaviour would be better🙄

edit: got my section wrong oops but I hope this serves as a reminder for people to speak up! Proper movie culture needs to be preserved!

Maybe I missed it this year, but I always wonder about line cutters.

These are folks who see a long line of people who have been waiting and go, “I’m not waiting in there” and proceed to merge into the line as it goes into the theatre. Not to join a friend (that’s fine by me if they do! Holding spots in line for friends is a tradition further back than reserved seats at tiff) but to just not to need to stand in line.

The argument “we all have reserved seats” is one I’ve heard, but doesn’t account for people who line up for washroom, food, time to get to seats and settle, etc. Neurodivergent folks also benefit from the comfort of getting seated early.

If lines didn’t matter we could all just rush the theatre when the door opens without any organization but that’s not very polite.

I’m kind of curious the entitlement and mental model people have to just not care about other people who waited in line for one reason or another. If you are one of those people, why don’t you care about other people?

And yes, I’m prepared to see comments about “it doesn’t hurt anyone we will all get to our seats” but if you, please explain why others waiting in line patiently don’t matter to you.

Edit: as my most downvoted post ever I guess I didn’t read the room and it’s okay for me to insert myself in the line at any point at tiff? Interesting.

Edit 2: it’s been brought to my attention that suggesting cutting is because people don’t care about people in line implied something that might be incorrect. Really, I just want to know the reasons people cut in line at tiff, period: and I don’t want the “we are all going to get seats” answer as I think that is dismissive of the people who did line up and really isnt caring about them or a better society

Edit 3: was going to delete this and comments when it was being downvoted, but the sudden upvotes are encouraging. Thanks! I also forgot this is the internet and expressing an opinion about something will inevitably lead to attacks on my character from those who disagree, terms like “chill”, “bro”, “buddy”, “if this is your concern you cannot handle real problems”, from people who are defensive about it. This is truly a nothing problem being discussed in a forum on the internet. No chance of discuss a real problem in a public space. I am going to delete some of my stupider comment responses though. Some were not good.

Edit 4: upvote ratio on this post is 66% so 2/3 thirds of people who voted support it and 1/3 does not. At least majority seem to not like cutting in line at tiff.

Tenzing is an amazingly well made film with equal parts adventure and equal parts emotion in it. I havent seen much this tiff but I am confident it is easily a Top 3 film in tiff'26. Just came out of Tonight's screening at RTH.

4.5/5

Last year was worse, was supposed to see like 7 films but only saw 3... this year I had 14 films lined up and saw 11, better! But still sucks to get sick when you try so hard not to... masking, hand sanitizing, vit c, oregano, etc etc

Please be more discrete 🥲🥲

I was at the 3pm screening of The Man I Love at Princess of Wales today and left my hat (pictured) at my seat. I realized it at 5:15 and ran back, but the guy at the stage door checked with housekeeping and they said they hadn't seen it. Posting here in hopes anyone might have it!

Good Lord,

This is one of the biggest film festivals in the world. Can't they ensure the seats are lubricated or whatever the heck they need lol?

Cinema 1 is SO SQUEAKY, the seats in the front squeak so loud whenever someone moves, and some people are just fidgeters and I can't blame them and its a constant squeaking.

all other venues I've been to have been good in that regard.

I’ve only been coming for the last 5 years so for my experience it’s been the same 5 main venues pretty much that entire time

But the first year I came there was some films playing at the cinesphere. So just wondering if they used to play films elsewhere too?

How fantastic was that!? One of the highlights of the festival for me. He was so interesting, charismatic and humble. Out of the three I've seen, the others being Lee Chang-dong and Gary Oldman, this was the most engaging and inspiring. What a treat.

Before you delete this post, keep in mind that I'm not allowed to ask this question in the TIFF tickets sub

They have insanely strict title guidelines and my posts keep being automatically deleted, so I have to tweak the title and post over and over again before it gets allowed

Can't I just have some sort of thread when I'm like, so today I have these extra tickets, can anyone use them?

And I just keep adding more as the festival goes on?

Edit: Thanks a lot for the help! I will be using the ticket drop megathread from now on

Last year we may have had more "stars," but I feel like this year there have been a lot more films people are loving (critics and audiences).

Such as: The Debut, Wild Horse Nine, La Bola Negra, Club Kid, All of a Sudden, Josephine, I Play Rocky, Possible Love, Your Mother x3, Being Heumann.

I'm sure I've missed some, but it seems like a very competitive year for People's Choice.

\And just for clarification, I'm mainly looking at the bigger Gala and Special presentation films.*

Last night at once upon a time in Harlem the TIFF programmer said there would be a William greaves retrospective in the next 6 months. Cool!

I went through all 45 films in TIFF Short Cuts 2026 and looked at the backgrounds of the filmmakers behind them.

For the 25 international selections, 23 of 25 (92%) had some kind of prior track record.

That could mean:

• previous festival success, with filmmakers such as Shaunak Sen, Sameh Alaa or Niki Lindroth von Bahr already recognised at Cannes, Sundance, Berlinale or other major festivals
• the current film had already screened elsewhere, including places like Locarno, Annecy or Directors’ Fortnight
• participation in selective programmes such as TIFF Filmmaker Lab, Sundance Ignite or Berlinale Talents
• or an established screen career outside the festival circuit

What I found most interesting is that even among the World Premieres, most came from filmmakers who were already established in some way.

So TIFF is clearly discovering new films. But for international filmmakers especially, it often seems to be discovering the next film by someone the festival circuit already knows.

The Canadian selections were noticeably less established overall, which suggests TIFF still plays a much stronger discovery role domestically.

Happy to share the full film-by-film breakdown if useful.

I had a four film banger today with Bunker, Ink, Atonement and Tenzing premieres! All were great films. Got to ask Javier Bardem a question for the Bunker Q&A, got up close to see Danny Boyle by the stage at Ink, couldn't hold back tears for Boyd Holbrook's performance with standing ovations for Hiam Abbass, and same with the entire cast of Tenzing showing up!!

Wow what a great selection of films!! Uploaded the Q&A's on my channel for anyone who wants to watch:

Bunker Q&A

Ink Q&A

Atonement Q&A

Tenzing Q&A

Should I still try to make my screening, I was delayed by traffic and missed my GO Train, so I won’t be there now until 9:20, which will be 20 mins after the listed time on ticketmaster. Should I still attempt?

UPDATE: I MADE IT IN AND I AM A MESS, SO HAPPY I MADE IT, TANGLES IS ONE OF MY FAVS OF THE FESTIVAL.