Toronto Film Festival Dailies

Sunday, September 7------Let me make this one point perfectly clear.....I come to a film festival to see films, network with professionals, experience the host city and then (and only then) do the party circuit. While I am as much of a fan of passed hors d'oeuvres as any sane person can be, I don't think of festivals as one long party romp. But on the occasional evening I do give into temptation and do a roundelay of party events, to see and be seen, to feed and be fed, to drink and to be drunken.

Well, last night was one of those non-stop festival party evenings. It began at 6pm on the dot, when I was downing an impossibly oversized margarita on the terrace of Milagro, an atmospheric Mexican restaurant located just across the street from the Festival's new-in-2010 hq, the Bell Lightbox, off King Street. The event was hosted by Imcine, the Mexican national film promotion board, and all I can remember after several of those margaritas is that the food was delicious, the liquor plentiful, the live music intoxicating and the networking of a supreme calibre.

Still in a down-south mood, I headed to Element XXX, the restaurant that hosts the Festival's Match Club, for drinks with the Brazilian contingent. Cinema do Brasil was the event sponsor, hosting the Brazilian filmmakers in attendance for the Festival, as well as a contingent of Braziian distributors and sales agents. The spirits were high (as was I) after a few mojitos and some other tasty hors d'oeuvres.

I then moved on to another party, another continent, another world. When you do this kind of festival party hopping, you are indeed a world traveler, since every event has its own country of origin and, if one is lucky, samples of its local food and liquor. That was certainly the case at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival bash held at the Film Lounge in upper Yorkville. The Festival hosted a Morrocan night, with a wonderful array of freshly prepared couscous and tagine specialties. The atmosphere was lively, the crowd chic and the food impossibly exotic. While I was not sure how my stomach would react to a mix of venison, veal, white fish and lamb....it all went down quite well with the rich merlot I was drinking.

After a brief detour to take in a Japanese film (which despite all my eating put me in a definite sushi/tempura mood), I dragged myself to yet one more event for a nightcap. The Film Lounge was again the venue of choice for the premiere party for the film Heckler, starring one of my personal faves, Susan Sarandon. The place was especially packed with beautiful people and I had a great sense of "here I am" existentialism.

While the movies remain the real attraction for me, sometimes there is a defining moment that lets you know that you are in the mix, not just standing on the sidewalk looking in. That came for me when I saw an impossibly handsome man give a beautifully adorned woman 4 sets of cheek kisses (a la francais). It was like something out of a Eric Rohmer film. So, that image, a mix of film and fantasy, was the one I carried with me as I hailed a taxi to take me to the comfort of my hotel room bed.

Sandy Mandelberger, Toronto FF Dailies Editor