Toronto International Film Festival 2009

I took over 600 photos this year, more than ever before. The best of these are on Flickr. I was also tried for my first autograph. I recently bought Ghostbusters I & II DVD. Bill Murray was in town, so I asked him to sign the DVD insert. He did! I normally don't care about this kind of stuff, but this one was special because I was hooked on the movie as a child. I have a photo of Ivan Reitman too, but it never occurred to me to get him to sign Ghostbusters at that time.

This year started off fairly slowly, with the recently popular Megan Fox and Jennifer Connelly at Roy Thompson Hall. I got to Roy Thompson Hall later than I had hoped, so all of my shots of Jennifer are from far away. A lot of great stars, like Penélope Cruz were at the Elgin theatre location, which I know from experience is a terrible place to get good photographs. Roy Thompson Hall is a good venue, but this year they changed the set up. Luckily it turned out to be about the same as normal (maybe a little better).

The second day was looking good, based on the schedule, and I got photos of George Clooney, Ewan McGregor and Jeff Bridges. Bill Murray was in the crowd and was asking people for directions to the film festival until someone realize it was him and he had to run inside!

The third day was the day I got Bill Murray's autograph. Robert Duvall was there too with Sissy Spacek.

The fourth day was looking crazy from a scheduling perspective, with lots of running from one venue to the next. I decided to focus on Drew Barrymore and attended the Whip It roller-derby at Yonge & Dundas Square. After waiting for about three hours, I heard Drew Barrymore talk about the movie from the stage. I was too far away to get any good shots of her from here, so I ran up to the Ryerson location, just in time for Drew Barrymore to arrive with Ellen Page! I got shots here and then ran back to Roy Thompson Hall to try and get photos of Mariah Carey and Oprah Winfrey, but it was impossible to get there in time.

The fifth day allowed me to get photos of Naomi Watts and Edward Norton. I waited outside the Elgin (back door) to see Ricky Gervais and Jennifer Garner come out, but wasn't happy with the shots I got of Jennifer.

The sixth day I saw Keanu Reeves and Robin Wright Penn. This day was also the day I went to a 'secret location' to take photos of all of the stars that were left in town. I got some unusual celebrity photos here, including Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York as well as the girls from the cult movie, Bitch Slap!

The seventh day was a big let down. Lisa Kudrow turned up with 'reverse raccoon' make-up which didn't photograph very well. Even George Pimintel (A WireImage.com photographer) looked disappointed with his photos of her. Natalie Portman turned up too, but she was shielded by bald bodyguards who were very close to her. She also didn't smile much. :(

The eighth day was foreign language movies, so I skipped it.

The ninth day was really just a change to see Colin Farrell, but he didn't show. Instead Christopher Plummer and Verne Troyer showed up for the Heath Ledger movie, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

Overall, this year was really good. I just noticed I forgot to mention a bunch of stars too! Danny DeVito, Marcia Gay Harden, Willem Dafoe and lots more...

Enjoy the photo gallery!