Pass the popcorn: Film fan aims to set movie-watching record at Toronto festival

Goal of 80 flicks in 11 days requires hectic schedule

- ALEX GOUDGE

Eric Tisch has received detailed guidelines from Guinness World Records. Among them: he must watch at least 75 movies at the festival and each film has to be at least 40 minutes long.

A Canadian cinephile will attempt to set a world record at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival by watching 80 movies in 11 days — even if it breaks his concession stand budget.

There is currently no Guinness World Record for most movies watched at a film festival, and 29-year-old Eric Tisch hopes to change that with his round-the-clock TIFF viewing schedule that leaves little room for sleep, or much else.

“There are a lot of movies that I’m going to be seeing that I don’t know much about but they fit in my schedule, and this is a very exciting way to experience TIFF,” said Tisch, a programming manager at Reel Canada.

His role at the non-profit organization that screens Canadian films in schools allows him to attend press and industry screenings at TIFF, and he’s using that to his advantage in his quest. His employer also gave him the greenlight to focus on the world record attempt over the course of the festival.