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Toronto Film Festival Movies Online?

by Mark Evans on Wed 13 Sep 2006 10:47 AM EDT | Permanent Link

If you didn't know it already, the Toronto International Film Festival is now going on - and it seems the entire city has a really bad case of celebrity-itis. (evidence: Brad Pitt press conference/love-in) In the Before Children (BC) era, my wife and I used to see a handful of films, most of which never appeared at movies theatres let alone the local Blockbuster. These days, I'm lucky to see one film (usually the Rogers Gala - this year it was "Penelope"). Given there are so many great films at the festival, wouldn't it be great if you could access them on the Web after the festival is over? Putting aside all those tricky technical, distribution and copyright issues, it would give a much wider audience the opportunity to see movies, and provide film makers/distributors with another source of revenue. This idea seems like such a win-win, no-brainer that I'm surprised it hasn't been explored earlier. And with Apple planning to offer movie downloads via iTunes, it's an idea whose time has come. (For Steve Jobs fans, check out Om Malik's post: "Is Steve Jobs Bill Gates 2.0?").

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Re: Toronto Film Festival Movies Online?

by Taylan Pince on Wed 13 Sep 2006 11:58 AM EDT | Permanent Link

Yeah, I guess that would be great... But what they really need to do, before even thinking about online movies, is to setup an online ticket purchase system that actually works, and can handle the load during the festival season. This year, I had a list of 10 movies I wanted to see, I spent three days trying to buy tickets online - and I couldn't get anything. Not because they were sold out, but the system simply didn't work. After many, many hours of typing my credit card number again and again, I just gave up. No festival for me this year. And they are sponsored by Bell? Such a shame.

Re: Re: Toronto Film Festival Movies Online?

by Mark Evans on Wed 13 Sep 2006 12:06 PM EDT | Profile | Permanent Link

i guess TIFF needs to walk before they run, eh? thanks for the insight. if it's any consolation, TIFF used to have a paper-based system that required you to stand in a long line just to submit your choices. and that didn't even guarantee that you'd get the films you wanted.

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