TIFF

[J.sharp]

> Maybe it's sad to say, but I think the future of ?cinema is video games...

I think this is proably true. The The British Academy of Film and Television
Arts (BAFTA) committee certainly think so. See

http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1726619,00.html

My problem regarding the TIFF anouncement is that over the years they have
constantly added new sidebars and related events such as Asian Winds,
Regional Filmmaking, the Women's Film Festival, Super Indies, Nippon Cinema
Classics, International Computer Graphics Festivals.

Some of these are very good, and it makes sense to showcase all these events
in one place at the same time while foreign journalists and industry figures
are there.

But as any non-Japanese journalist who has visited the festival will know,
the key problem with TIFF its rather lackadaisical approach to hospitality
and accessibility. Many events and screenings are in Japanese only, while it
is really difficult to even get into many screenings - even though most are
only about 40% full, with the bulk of seats reserved for city officials who
don't even turn up.

My advise to TIFF would be to get their core program properly orgnaised
before considering overstretching themselves any further, and my advice to
journalists or festival programmers would be to go to FilmEx instead, where
at least they are guaranteed a seat.

Jasper Sharp

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