Who doesn't want to feel like a celebrity walking down the red carpet now and then? Well, if your TIFF journeys happen to find you watching a movie at Scotiabank Theatre during the festival, you'll get a glimpse of what it must feel like.

At the top of Scotiabank's famous escalators (are they famous? they feel fame worthy to me because, I mean, they go on forever), Cineplex has set up a special bit of advertising to boost your ego just a little bit. A giant screen waits there. At first you're not sure what it's supposed to do exactly. All it's showing is a video of photographers waiting around with their cameras for something to shoot--just as they would at a red carpet TIFF gala at Roy Thompson Hotel.

As you get closer to it, however, you realize what's going on. Those photographers are waiting for you. Not stars. Motion sensors activate as soon as you walk past, and the photographers' faces light up, their cameras come up, and they start snapping, treating you like the star you deserve to be. It's a pretty cool feeling.You can even engage further by tapping on the screen to - as the giant screen promises - put yourself on the cover of the Cineplex magazine.

No doubt as the hustle and bustle of TIFF takes hold our awareness of that big screen may fade. But for the first days? It's hard not to smile. Not just because it makes you want to puff out your chest a little with feelings of improtance, but because it's a welcome reminder: TIFF is finally here.

Photo by Jesse Milns