Sunday, September 18, 2005

Festival envy

I've been reading several ongoing accounts of the Toronto Film Festival, including on the AV Club blog, and in the New York Times, and on Cinematical, as well as Slant's preview coverage of the New York Film Festival, and it really makes me wish I could get out to some of these big festivals. There seems to be such a wealth of interesting and challenging material at Toronto, with a great mix of high-profile premieres and buzzed-about indies and just random foreign and underground movies that won't ever be shown elsewhere. And New York looks like it'll have a lot of the same elements. I've tried for the past few years to convince the powers-that-be at Las Vegas Weekly to send me to Sundance, which is only a few hours' drive from here, so far to no avail. I'd actually rather go to a festival like Toronto or New York (or Telluride, another recent intriguing festival) that's not so bogged down in industry hype and deal-making and celebrity sightings (although Toronto seems to have its share). I just want a chance to spend 10 days taking in the kinds of movies that I rarely have a chance to see here in Vegas, and soaking up the film culture atmosphere (which I'd probably find tiresome if I spent all my time in it). Instead I have to make do with CineVegas, which is a great thing for Las Vegas and a fun way to spend a week, but not quite the same.

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