Toronto International Film Festival

Generally rated as one of the ten top film festivals in the world, the Toronto International Film Festival takes place for ten days beginning the Thursday night after Labor Day. 300-400 films are screened at a dozen or so downtown Toronto venues. The Festival features retrospectives of national cinemas and individual directors as well as an extensive yearly program, Perspective Canada, that highlights Canadian cinema. Major directors and stars are frequent attendees. There is also a sidebar trade event. The Toronto International Film Festival Group also maintains a library of videotapes submitted to the festival and of film materials as part of Cinematheque Ontario (which provides year round screening of classic films).