TORONTO -- The circus surrounding the Toronto International Film Festival has expanded from sideshow to centre stage with dozens of parties and corporate shindigs being held throughout the fest.
Beyond TIFF-sanctioned festivities and cast parties, countless other social events staged during the 10-day event seek to draw attention -- and potentially A-listers -- to their fetes.
TIFF CEO Piers Handling recalled when Virgin decided to stage a music festival on Toronto Island a few years ago during the festival, a move he said was "clearly piggy-backing on us."
"There's things you can't control, it's a free world ... people can choose to do these types of things," Handling said in an interview.
"As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't really detract. It actually adds to the impact. If you've got more people trying to attach yourself to what you're doing, that speaks to the power of what you have."
Still, Handling said the festival has increasingly "put their foot down" as a way to protect its business relationships.
One example was auto sponsors and other manufacturers working out deals with distribution companies and studios to bring stars to the red carpet -- and subverting TIFF's car sponsor.
"The upside is that clearly it's an event that people want to associate themselves with," said Handling.
"The downside is every once in a while, they're not doing it in the most legal way and they could be potentially stealing dollars away from us. And we're a charity as well and we need that money."
"ETalk" senior correspondent Lainey Lui has covered TIFF and the Cannes Film Festival and notes differences between the social scenes of the two prestigious events.
"The TIFF parties, definitely the celebrities show up. But a lot of people fly in for the work and don't have the added party ambition (or) goal there," said Lui, co-host of CTV's "The Social" and gossip blogger at LaineyGossip.com.
"In Cannes, people just go. They might not even have a movie. They're just there to party and get onto somebody's yacht.
"Leonardo DiCaprio is going to Cannes every year whether or not he has a film there just to party. He's not coming to Toronto for that."
Lui said there are multiple events every night during TIFF, particularly during the first weekend.
Beyond being an opportunity for celebrities to hobnob, parties also give stars a chance to talk shop, pay respects to producers, talk to influential journalists and potentially line up their next films, she noted.
Lui recalled one of her most memorable TIFF parties was attended by George Clooney at Soho House's pop-up venue. The Oscar winner had two films screening at the fest and had stopped in after attending a Vanity Fair party.
"We were all expecting that George Clooney would show up for an hour and leave. He practically shut the place down."
Lui said she doesn't see the events surrounding TIFF detracting from the films, including those featuring lesser-known talents.
"I know filmmakers who have shown at TIFF with smaller films and you can't take that enthusiasm away from them.
"For them, it's awesome for them to walk a carpet that two hours earlier Sandra Bullock was just on."
