Last night I went to the gala screening of Happy-Go-Lucky at the Sudbury International Festival. Yes, Sudbury has a film festival, and an international one at that. But, before I continue on with my retelling of my evening, I must preface this with how bummed I was that I was missing TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) this year. I have gone to the festival the last two years, watching tons of movies! And last year I got to go to the festival’s opening and closing galas, the picnic and even got into the Juno after party! Well, since I’m a glass-half-full kinda guy, I figure I’ll make the most of my situation and get myself into going to the film festival here. And yet again, Sudbury has pleasantly surprised me!
So, last week, a co-worker of mine and I decided that we were going to go to some movies for “Cinefest”, which is what they call the film festival up here. Because of my hectic schedule, I am only free on Monday, Friday and Tuesday if I skip my tennis league. We decided to go to the gala on Monday (yesterday), not because of the movie per se, but mostly because I was free and that it’s a gala. What’s great with a gala screening is that after the movie, there’s a reception at a nearby venue with food AND free booze. FREE!!! Yes! And the gala tickets only cost $19.50. At TIFF, a ticket to a regular movie will cost you 20 bucks.
We decided to make a night of it, so we went to grab some sushi downtown first. The movie started at 7pm and we wanted to be there around 6 so we could decent seats. So, we had dinner at about 5 o’clock. The sushi wasn’t bad. It was pretty good, decently priced (for Sudbury, not by Vancouver standards). My only complaint was that the edamame was overcooked, but it was complimentary so I can’t bitch about it too much. After some good chats and my co-worker's first taste of yummy, yummy spider roll (soft shell crab, for those of you not in the know), it was off to the movies.
Unlike TIFF, Cinefest movies take place at one venue – at the ONE Silver City in town! But, it does make it easier than trying to make your way all throughout downtown Toronto if you’re watching multiple movies in a day. And apparently, if a theatre is full, they’ll just show it on another screen, which I don’t think happens at TIFF either. Anyway, we saw the movie and I was pleasantly surprised. I didn’t know much about the movie and the synopsis in the movie guide wasn’t very attention-grabbing – really it’s all about the gala afterwards! But I thought it was really funny. The actress in it was amazing – so funny and quirky! Anyway, here’s the IMDB link to it: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1045670/
Then, after the movie was the gala. This time the gala took place at The Keg across the street (it’s different after each movie). It was a bit crowded in there…or a lot crowded! Luckily, after being able to squeeze through to the back of the restaurant, my co-worker saw some people she knew who had a table. I had a couple glasses of red wine, some cocktail shrimp, crab and beef and pork appetizer thingies – it was great! Well, the people there were scavengers when it came to the trays of food, but we eventually got food served to us. So, all in all, I had a fabulous time. Free food and drinks (and you know it tastes better when it’s free), a great movie and even great company. And I'm going to a movie tonight instead of tennis (not a gala though), but I am going to another gala on Friday night! GO SUDBURY! Keep the pleasant surprises coming.
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