These are just some tips and advice as somebody who frequently attends the year-round screenings that TIFF has to offer and has done so for many years now. Not quite the same as the Toronto International Film Festival itself in September, for which the advice I can share regarding the festival itself has been covered in a previous post. TIFF Cinematheque refers to the year-round screenings that take place at the TIFF Lightbox, generally of older films. Many of the Cinematheque screenings are free for TIFF members as well as anyone with an under-25 pass, which is why it’s worth covering them here.
TIFF Cinematheque tickets usually drop on either the 2nd or 3rd Wednesday of every month, at 12 pm for members.
TIFF will usually tell you the specific date and time that tickets drop for the following month’s screenings in their monthly press blurb, titled “programming Highlights” for the respective month. Sometimes you can find information regarding the dates for ticket drops for the next several months. But the ticket drop dates usually follow this pattern. Sometimes you may get a situation where the ticket drop dates are separated – like for example a big marquee series like the Christopher Nolan retrospective might drop on the Thursday following the initial Wednesday ticket drop. Follow TIFF’s press releases to ensure you stay up to date on this as this information will change month to month.
Recently the TIFF website has also added a page detailing the schedule for the following month’s upcoming screenings as well as information concerning the ticket drop dates.
Get on the TIFF Ticketmaster platform about half an hour earlier than the 12 pm listed time
There is usually an online queue that appears prior to when the tickets drop on the specified date. We recommend aiming to get in the queue (by going to the Cinematheque section within the Buy Tickets drop-down at the top) about 30 minutes at minimum before the listed time, or even earlier than that depending on if there may be a much bigger demand for tickets – such as if there’s an upcoming marquee series like the Christopher Nolan one. If you just show up on time or even later, it’s very likely you’ll be behind a very long queue and it may take a long time to be able to get any tickets, plus chances are you may end up not getting the tickets to the screenings you want since they’ll be all sold out.
It is almost inevitable that Ticketmaster will have technical issues during this process.
If you’re looking to grab tickets during the initial Wednesday ticket drops and you’re getting all kinds of strange error messages or you’re just not able to get the tickets because things are not loading correctly, it may not be a ‘you’ problem so much as it is a Ticketmaster problem. That’s just the platform – it may not be perfect, sometimes it’ll work well for you and things go smoothly, and other times it won’t. Do not fret – worst case scenario, just wait, and if you miss out on the tickets you want, just keep checking back. Speaking of that:
If the screenings you want are sold-out, keep checking back.
People usually will return their tickets ahead of time. TIFF has a policy where you can return your tickets for any free Cinematheque screening up to 48 hours before the showtime. So it’s always worth it to check back – we recommend doing so around 48 hours before the screening you want, as that is likely to be when people will return their tickets and when there will be the most available seats possible to choose for that screening beyond the ticket drop dates.
You can return your tickets up to 48 hours before the screening, and exchange your tickets up to 4 hours prior to the screening.
As long as the ticket you are exchanging for a different screening matches the price value of the ticket you have – so if your ticket is free, you can only exchange it for screenings that are also free. The only exception to this might be the From the Collection series with Cameron Bailey where you can only exchange it for a different seat within the same screening – this may be something to fact check.
If you transfer your ticket to someone else, and they don’t show up, you will be charged for the no-show fee instead of that person.
This is also TIFF’s policy – even if the ticket is no longer yours. Ensure that you are transferring the ticket to someone you trust and who you know will show up for the screening.
