Those that know me understand that I love film festivals!!! Toronto is the best because it is right outside my backdoor and everyone that I know and love from the film world come to celebrate film. I get to escape from my regular life into lalalala land. I love lalalaland, its great! I get to go to cocktail parties, dinner parties, gala premieres and after parties. I also get to go dress shopping! Now I realize that there is more to life than parties, but it is the one chance where I get to share my thoughts and opinions on any given film with directors, producers and agents. Otherwise my thoughts and opinions are kept amongst myself and my peers. None the less, this years film festival was special because I launched my social media consulting business and assisted Danielle Pelland of Brilliant consulting with her movie events. Now Danielle Pelland has been doing events since 2005 and proved this year at TIFF that she is the queen of events! Danielle Pelland absolutely does not get enough credit with what she does and how she brings it all together.
So this is a shout out to one of the most successful event planners in the business!! I picked superwoman up from the airport and of course she is surrounded by other film people talking about what events and what films to see etc. Leading up to this moment I did not get to hear much of what was going with her events, meaning how many was she doing? what days? etc. I took her to Earls restaurant on King a place those from out west love to hang out, and we actually found friends that we graduated with from University from out west. None the less I was anxiously awaiting Danielle to tell me what I would be helping her with- well I wasnt expecting her response as she said ten events in four days at the Soho/Grey Goose house. I was completely floored!!! I had never heard of such a thing being possible and was about to learn and find out how it would all come together.
Now to clarify what Soho/Grey Goose house is…a pop-up venue where the staff,team and chef come from Los Angeles, New York and London to cater and service all the guests who come to the film parties as well as their private members. Now Grey Goose was the major sponsor of the venue, so they had their team their as well, headed by Dimi Lesinska the global ambassador of Grey Goose, who travels the world in celebration of an amazing brand. Dimi creates the most fantastic cocktails for the events!!! Such drinks as the Toronto Tower and the Northern starlet!!!
Now interestingly enough between the two luxury brand companies you have Danielle Pelland a five foot four-French Canadian brunette as a buffer between the film companies having their parties at the venue and Soho House and Grey Goose. This is what Danielle does best, which is bring people together. I have been to enough events of hers that I know what a “Danielle” event is compared to the “other” parties. The other parties are usually ones where the sponsor does not fit the demographics or even the theme of the film party. Danielle’s parties are becoming extremely exclusive and chalked full of talent inside. This making her other collaborators extremely excited about the results to which she far exceeds.
The first party held at Soho/Grey Goose house was a cocktail party for “Ides of March” starring George Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Paul Giamati and Philip Seymour-Hoffman. It was a small intimate gathering before the gala premiere of the film across the street at the Roy Thomson Hall. I was fortunate enough to go to the gala premiere screening and attend the Alliance after party that had surprise guest Cee-lo perform. It was an amazing evening that ended back at Soho where Mark Wahlbergs film “Broken City” had a small cocktail gathering as well as Tilda Swintons movie “We need to talk about Kevin” was taking place simultaneously. Now admist the parties was Danielle coordinating and overseeing the events, making sure that everyone was happy and things were running smoothly. Did I forget to mention that Danielle was 8 months pregnant??!!! It was interesting to see how people reacted to her being pregnant, apparently Mark Wahlberg adored her belly and every time George Clooney would walk by her he would bless or touch her belly!! I am sure that there would be many woman envious of this interaction that was occurring. Highly entertaining stuff and a great icebreaker.
Day two of events was Ryan Goslings “Drive” and Rachel Weisz’ “Dangerous Method”. This was a Saturday which meant that everyone was out and in full force. This was the most insane night at the Soho/Grey Goose House as almost every A-list celeb that was in town was inside sipping on some fine Grey Goose cocktails. The party streamed from three floors. The first floor was where you would find George Clooney, Stacy Keebler and Bono hanging out and the talented music producer/director/DJ Zen Freeman spinning for the hundreds inside. On the second floor the music continued and filled up so tight with celebs. If you were up there you would have seen Alexander Skaarsgard, Paul Giamatti, Emily Blunt, Evan Rachel Wood, Juliette Lewis all dancing and having fun. On the third floor was the games room where guests could chill a little more quietly and play ping-pong, I believe I may have seen Paul Haggis chatting up there to be exact. Some of the most interesting areas of the party were actually the stairwells, as celebs were coming in and out of the venue and going up and down the stairs. At one point I recall K’naan pretending to fall down the stairs to bump into me and saying ” this is a great way to meet people” I replied “are you okay??” and laughed and continued on my way. I definitely will not forget the ambience in Soho because there was mobs of fans outside and all you could see were the flashing lights, telling you that celebs were either coming in or coming out. It was very exciting. That was a very late night….and for very good reasons.
Day three’s events held a dinner for the cast of “Albert Knobbs”, “DeepBlue Sea” and “Your Sisters sister” all three went off without a hitch.
Day four, the last day, a cocktail party for Gerald Butler and Ralph Fiennes ” Coriolanus” to which Danielle Pelland had introduced me to Gerard Butler and he whole heartedly made fun of my handshake and to which I decided to invite him to Danielle’s Baby shower as it coincided with a surfing movie he is filming in Los Angeles in and around the same time. I thought it was funny.
Upstairs was the secret dinner for Madonnas film she directed “W.E.” a small dinner with some surprising guests; Jeanne Beker and Tanya Kim. This dinner was hosted by The Weinstein Company, which turned into a bigger party for hundreds more guests affiliated with the Weinstein Company. This had to have been a great last hoorah for the Soho/Grey Goose house as guests were dancing on tables and chairs and kicking their shoes off!!! As I described it, it was like that scene from “True Blood” where everyone becomes entranced by the Maenad /nymph character dancing and being free-minus the nudity though, it really was fun watching everyone let loose, have fun and be very sweaty.
Now ten events later the Soho/Grey Goose house is finished and everyone who was a part of it, was packing up their things and heading back to Los Angeles, New York or London. It came and went extremely fast, but the press and publicity still lingering around creating the hype that Soho/Grey Goose was the best place to be at TIFF!! It wasn’t until late Monday night that I started getting texts are you at Soho??? People in Toronto were just catching on about this place, the answer was no, it came and went. The funny thing is I had mentioned months before about the pop-up as I was checking in on the renovations of the venue months before, for Danielle Pelland. And all weekend people were asking me what I was doing and I would say Soho, they just did not get it. A lot of Torontonians have missed the boat on this one. I guess there is always next year.
One of the things I loved about the festival was hearing how much everyone loves Toronto!! They love the restaurants, the people, the weather!! I think Torontonians are very hospitable and accommodating people to all the guests from out-of-town, this the complete opposite of Cannes France who the people there could care less about the service or the dollars being pumped into their economy. The Toronto film festival is one of the best film festivals and its right in our own backyard. Something to which David Whitaker president & CEO of tourism should be very happy with. Toronto got a lot of amazing press and a fair bit of it came from Danielle Pellands big events held at The Soho/Grey Goose house. Danielle was responsible for getting some of the talent to do fun things for the camera and media that hyped Toronto up.
As you can see I have a lot to say about the film fest which is why I say I get caught up in lalalaland so I must escape from it and return back to reality which is just like an escape watching a movie…
