Ebert on the Ground at TIFF

This year there will probably be more coverage on the web from the TIFF than there ever has been. In addition to Nancy who’ll be covering the festival for us, I’ll be paying attention to Roger Ebert’s blog. He’ll be at the fest, and is anxious to see, of all things, Bad Lieutenant. While most who attend try to sound pro, Roger gives the quiet enthusiast an idea of how it all works.

I’ve just finished combing through the list of films in this year’s Toronto Film Festival, and I have it narrowed down to 49. I look at the list and sigh. How can I see six films a day, write a blog, see people and sleep? Nor do I believe the list includes all the films I should see, and it’s certainly missing films I will see. How it happens is, you’re standing in line and hear buzz about something. Or a trusted friend provides a title you must see. Or you go to a movie you haven’t heard much about, just on a hunch, and it turns out to be “Juno.”

He also calls out the LA Times’ Kenneth Turan’s method of seeing movies — and how he checks them out for a few minutes and then moves on to the next one, knowing he’ll have more time later to see it all the way through. Ebert has a few things on many of the other outlets that will be covering the fest. First, he’s not going as an Oscar scout, thus his perspective is going to be less about finding Oscar’s best pic and more about the films themselves. Second, homeboy has been around the block. He knows enough to not have to pretend to know everything.¬† Third, his writing is always worth the time. Like him or not another person who covers the fest pretty well is Jeff Wells at Hollywood-Elsewhere, though you might not be getting just the movies – you’ll get the noisy festival goers and their bad shoes, his chronic bad luck in losing either wi-fi or his communication devices — still, his can be an entertaining site on its own. David Poland will, of course, be there. Anne Thompson will no doubt do a bang-up job for Indiewire. Hard-working Thompson trucks it out from Telluride to Toronto as we speak. Ed Douglas from Coming Soon will be there. Maybe a better question is who WON’T be there?

So, who are going to be your go-to Toronto outlets?