In three days, Toronto's newest cultural attraction will officially open at King and John. So while the last exhibit pieces are being mounted and the bustling crew adds a few more finishing touches, TIFF invited media to visit its swanky new Bell Lightbox.

Keen to see more of the soon-to-be movie megahub, this time I went in without a hardhat and with blogTO photographer Dennis Marciniak. We didn't get the sponsors' deluxe champagne tour, but we did get tons of photos, plus a sneak peek at the inaugural Essential Cinema exhibit and post-TIFF 2010 programming.

Reviews of TIFF movies screening at the 2010 festival will be flying fast and furious starting tomorrow. But thanks to invites to special media-only screenings at the Varsity, we've put together an initial batch of mini-reviews in advance of opening night. Here are nine TIFF reviews - grouped into those we highly recommend, recommend or suggest to avoid - with more reviews coming as the festival progresses.

When TIFF officially kicks off tomorrow, I won't be ready. For the fiftieth time in the past few weeks, I'm on the festival website, in a last ditch attempt to schedule that perfect balance of indie and high profile films. I'll want some foreign stuff, art house picks, a few docs, and comedies to lighten the mood in between, preferably from all corners of the world.

True, it will be impossible to do it all. So what's on during TIFF 2010 that can't be missed?

One of the great things about summer 2010 has been the choice lineup of outdoor screenings popping up all over Toronto parks and public spaces. New in the mix: Open Roof Films.

Homegrown and indie focused, the rooftop parking lot screening series was originally planned for a rooftop near the Harbourfront, but instead launches at the Amsterdam Brewery this Friday, August 6th, with the Hot Docs hit The Parking Lot Movie (oh, the irony). This week's kick off will also feature live music by Little Girls and a Q&A with Amal director Richie Mehta.

TIFF 2010 is just around the corner and today the festival confirmed Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan, Julian Schnabel's Miral, and Alejandro González Iñárritu's Biutiful (trailer embedded below) as films that will screen at this year's film festival in Toronto. In 2010, the Toronto International Film Festival moves south and this morning at TIFF's new host hotel, the Hyatt Regency on King West, they unveiled a partial lineup for this year's galas and special presentations. I was on the scene at the press conference to gather all the details first hand from TIFF Co-Directors Piers Handling and Cameron Bailey. And to snack on fruit and scones, natch.

Looks like it's finally happening. The TIFF Cinematheque moves into its new diggs at the TIFF Bell Lightbox with a September 12, 2010 launch date. And while the new five-screen movieplex sounds pretty exciting, TIFF has programmed a smoking-hot lineup this summer to exit its run at the AGO's Jackman Hall.

This month, catch TIFF's retrospective on Catherine Breillat, the French filmmaker and author known for her sometimes graphic and always edgy depictions of female sexuality. Catherine Breillat's Anatomies of Desire kicks off this Thursday, July 22nd with her latest film, a retelling of the grisly Bluebeard folktale.