Welcome to ELLECanada.com’s official TIFF journal! This festival, Laura deCarufel and Jennifer Lee, the co-editors of
Hardly magazine
, have the high honour of reporting live from TIFF’S coolest events. Stay tuned for party coverage and behind-the-scenes scoop!
By Jennifer Lee Last night Laura and I checked out the pre-festival scene, today, the 35th Toronto International Film Festival officially begins. Day one of the festival is always a bit of a flip-flop of affairs. Industry and talent are just starting to trickle in, while festival scenesters tend to stick to spritzer, reluctant to expel their energy before the weekend party rush. This year, I ease into the whirl of screenings, interviews, cocktail parties and post-gala soirees, by way of a visit to
Aveda’s newly opened Experience Centre (155 Cumberland Avenue), located in Yorkville — a polestar for celebrities during the festival. Having rushed over from the city’s West side (new home to the TIFF Bell Lightbox a.k.a. festival headquarters), where I was picking up my festival press badge, I could almost smell my soaring stress levels as I raced to make my appointment at Aveda. After a few years of covering the festival, I’ve become accustomed to the pulsating tension in my shoulders that takes root during the 10-day haul, thus my surprise when on day one of the festival — with TIFF madness staring me in the face — that my stress should fade away as I entered this aromatic space.  Designed with the five senses in mind, the new space conjures tranquility with its use of reclaimed wood, and the subtle fragrance of chankra-based aromas (targeting the seven energy centers of the body) in the air.

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