L-R: [1] James Patton left and Andrew Arthur (second from right) schmoozing at the European Sales Office Party in Toronto [2] Peter Belsito of Film Finders with David Kleiler at the European Sales Office Party [3] Writer Andrew Arthur and his protegee James Patton in Toronto to take meetings and move their projects forward.

“Wherever there’s free food, you know you’ll find Kleiler,”was my cheerful greeting from Boston based entertainment lawyer Vinca Jarrett at the annual breakfast sponsored by the Israeli Consulate at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), this year celebrating its 29th year.

This breakfast is only one of hundreds of special events that go on during the l0-day fest. What with 328 films on display from 60 countries, TIFF is nothing if not vast. Over 20,000 people attend; almost 6,000 are from the film industry. And there’s a niche for everyone, and, seemingly incongruously, a surprising sense of intimacy that only smaller regional festivals can attain. Sundance, in a community l/l000th the size is far more stratified and far less democratic.

To be sure, during the l5 years I have been coming to the Festival, things have changed. Once, all the industry activities were located in the European style Sutton Hotel. For pass holders, there were free lunches and a free happy hour. Those in the industry mixed freely with the residents of Toronto for whom the Festival was originally created. Screenings of hits and award winners on the last Sunday have disappeared. Now, TIFF (it used to be called The Festival of Festivals) is less concentrated, with press in one location, sales in another. Screening venues are uptown and downtown. And, by 2006, there is to be a downtown TIFF headquarters that might be closer to the clubs, but farther from the shops and bistros of the Yorkville area (a cross between Newbury Street and Fifth Avenue). The Uptown theatre is gone and the smaller 4-screen Cumberland is scheduled to close. And, film press complain that they have less of a chance to explore and discover obscure films and are forced to partake of press junkets for soon to be released commercial films.

Fortunately, TIFF has Piers Handling as CEO. Formerly Festival Director, he now oversees all of TIFF’s multiple operations. Throughout his tenure at TIFF, he has kept the Festival on course in spite of the financial and political pressures. His gracious and professional presence is felt throughout the l0-day extravaganza. He maintains the common touch. When I had a chance to talk with him one day, he said he was at his fourth lunch. Under his guidance, TIFF remains an exciting festival for the citizens of Toronto and a meaningful gathering place for industry professionals.

For industry professionals, there are three ways to approach the Festival: seeing films, having meetings, and schmoozing. Most pass holders do some combination of all of the above, but I have known people not to have seen any films, or not to have attended any parties. Over the years, as my relation to the film business has evolved, I have changed in my approach to TIFF. Once, when I was in charge of programming at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, I saw as many as 74 films. This year, in the 5-1/2 days I was there, it was 26 films (including shorts), l7 social events and l4 meetings. As one might guess, one has to prepare - to get in shape. It’s unlike preparing for the Olympics. Instead, you cut down on sleep and increase your drinking capacity. One has to get used to getting 3-5-1/2 hours sleep a night, and to be able to keep coherent at social events. Stamina is important!

Programmers and press see 3-6 films a day. Most attend the special screenings for press and industry, but most can still attend the public screenings. No film gets screened fewer than three times. Screenings begin at 8:30 am and end with Midnight Madness. They don’t go to many late parties, and as my friend, Boston Phoenix writer and free-lance journalist said, “I just don’t do midnight movies any more.”

Others do the party circuit. There aren’t as many TIFF sponsored parties as before, but there are dozens of others every day, from the European Sales Office party, photographed by Bostonian Jean Hangarter, to a rock band from Finland celebrating the latest minimalist film to a midnight gathering at a sex club for the controversial new film by Asia Argento, one of whose producers is Brookline’s Ara Katz, whose first film, SEXUAL DEPENDENCY premiered last year at TIFF and will show at the MFA later this month. It’s surprising at how many of the same faces I saw so often at such events (Of course, they saw my face, too.). Film Finders founder Peter Belsito was ubiquitous, as was Vinca Jarrett and Worcester-raised and now Canadian citizen Ambrose Roche, a Toronto-based distributor, who also serves as my host and guide.

Finally, there are those who go primarily to “take meetings.” Boston screenwriter Andrew Arthur set up appointments for every day. Aggressively, and smartly, trying to promote his project, Andrew and his assistant, James Patton, managed to balance their meeting agenda with parties and even a few movies

Although there were fewer New England connected films than ever at this year’s TIFF, there were, as usual, more film people from the Boston area in Toronto than were at the Boston Film Festival, which, inexplicably, runs simultaneously. TIFF is a must for programmers. The Coolidge’s Joe Zina and Clinton McClung were there as well as the MFA’s Bo Smith and the Brattle’s Ned Hinkle and Ivy Moylan. Veteran film booker George Mansour saw three films a day and had a nice meal. Connie White, who books the Coolidge as well as the Pleasant St. Theater in Northampton, hung out with her friend, Cambridge-raised Sarah Eaton, who is head of Marketing for the Sundance Channel. Former Coolidge Managing Director and now New York publicist, Sasha Berman, was there, as well as, emerging Boston screenwriter Debbie Weis who landed a volunteer gig and did more effective networking than she could have at any other festival. And it was great to see old friend Bingham Ray, former head of October films and United Artists, and board member of the Nantucket Film Festival... Others I did not see included Boston Globe critic Ty Burr and local producer Amy Geller.

In spite of there not being a New England film, per se, there were still some films with New England connections. From Pioneer Valley, veteran PBS documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, with his cinematographer Buddy Squires, has made another powerful film, this time on legendary pioneering black boxer Jack Johnson. The 5-1/2 hour film is narrated by James Earl Jones, who was the star on stage and screen of THE GREAT WHITE HOPE, the biopic of Johnson. Even more powerful is George Butler’s portrayal of John Kerry’s Vietnam years, GOING UPRIVER: THE LONG WAR OF JOHN KERRY, more convincing about Kerry’s leadership ability and political conviction than anything put out by Kerry’s own campaign and certainly a convincing rebuttal to anything the anti-Kerry Swift Boat people have to say.

Finally, there is New England-bred filmmaker Brad Anderson’s THE MACHINIST, scheduled to open in Boston October 22. Curiously programmed as part of Midnight Madness, it is a disturbingly atmospheric and effective study of paranoia, as personified by Christian Bale, who does the opposite of the bulking up that Robert DeNiro did for RAGING BULL. Bale looks like a refugee from the Holocaust. THE MACHINIST is both disturbing and slightly depressing. It is also a stylistic tour de force by Anderson in the manner of his under appreciated SESSION 9. Hardly a New England film, it is, in fact, produced in Spain, where SESSION 9 was a hit. No one would ever guess that the film was not set in blue collar America.

It was great to see Brad, happily a new dad, and eagerly working on a new project which has a Brazilian motif, with both his frequent writer collaborator, Lyn Vaus, and with none other than Mitchell Robbins, who produced Brad’s breakthrough film NEXT STOP WONDERLAND. The new project will probably cost l0 times as much.

There were other films. In addition to the above, here are some of my favorites. As director of the Boston Underground Film Festival, my taste naturally goes to the dark side. So I liked the Canadian dark comedy, SIBLINGS, with Sarah Polley, in which four children kill and bury their awful parents on Christmas Eve, and the Belgian, Dutch, French co-production, THE ORDEAL, which also has some Christmas Eve perversity and is sort of a ratcheted-up combination of DELIVERANCE and THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. There are scenes I thought I would never see.

On the more accessible front, I really liked Kevin Bacon’s Sundance hit, THE WOODSMAN, in which he plays a released sex offender coming to grips with the realities of living in society. My favorite, however, was THE HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS, by Xiang Yimou. Although the martial arts are not as spectacular as CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, nor is the cinematography as stunning as HERO, it is still astonishing in both categories. And, it has a more engaging narrative. You actually care about the characters. DAGGERS is slated for a Christmas release.

So, this was the 29th TIFF for me. Whatever the changes, TIFF remains THE festival to attend in the Western hemisphere. I hope to be back for my l6th, TIFF’s 30th and that great breakfast.