This is not a press event, per se, although studios try to turn it into one. The worst-case scenario is that you get so wrapped up in getting interviews, staged events and parties that you miss the pleasure of the unexpected, of walking into a movie that you've never heard of by an obscure foreign or first time filmmaker and being enchanted or outraged. While there are press screenings daily, this is a public festival with more than 250,000 paying customers last year. The best-case scenario is seeing films with these opinionated and passionate filmgoers. Anyone who spends 10 days here without seeing 30 movies isn't trying.
Stars are plentiful.
The Four Seasons hotel is a celebrity beehive. You can't swing a cat without hitting someone famous. Last year I rode up in an elevator with Eric Clapton, who was playing in town. This year a new hotel that is also the festival's headquarters, the Park Hyatt, promises to be high in celebrity wattage. The local papers cover the stars' comings and goings in depth and beyond the coverage you'll find on JS Online and in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Web sites for the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail are a good way to keep up to speed.