Admit One: Gothic Guide to TIFF 2026
12 screenings and experiences to make the most of Toronto’s biggest celebration of cinema
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
For nearly two weeks each September, Toronto becomes one of the most exciting places in the world for cinephiles. TIFF may be famous for red carpets and awards-season premieres, but its programme reaches much further, bringing television to the big screen and experimental filmmaking into the conversation alongside horror that demands a midnight audience. Add live discussions with the people shaping what we watch next and a city that enthusiastically joins the party, and there are countless ways to experience the festival beyond chasing its biggest ticket.
To help you plan accordingly, we’ve curated a gothic guide to some of the festival’s most compelling dark storytelling, with a few appropriately cinematic ways to spend the hours between screenings.
Dark Feminine Travel Guide: A Long Weekend in Toronto
Where to stay, wander and misbehave for three days in the city
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Toronto is so much more than Blue Jays games and Steam Whistle beneath the CN Tower. Look beyond the postcard version and you’ll find a city shaped by Gothic architecture, storied institutions and a creative culture that rewards a little curiosity.
For a long weekend worthy of your darker inclinations, we’ve curated a lux long weekend that sways between the city’s gothic heritage and its more decadent pleasures, making time for art, fashion and a few wonderfully strange discoveries along the way. Pack something black. You’re going to want options.
Reel Keepers: Inside Toronto’s Revue Cinema
How Toronto's historic movie house is carrying film nostalgia into a new era of immersive cinema
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
There was a time when seeing a movie was a proper night on the town. You bought the ticket. Chose your seat. Sat among friends and strangers. The lights went down, and for the next two hours, everyone experienced the same thing at the same time.
Streaming has made film almost infinitely accessible, putting more than a century of cinema within reach from the comfort of our couch. But convenience changed our relationship with watching it. The destination disappeared. So did much of the anticipation, occasion and collective experience that once came with going to the movies.
At Toronto's Revue Cinema, those things are very much alive.
More than a century after audiences first began filing into the Roncesvalles theatre, the Revue has become a cinephile's paradise, with programming that stretches from cult oddities and filmmaker retrospectives to audience-participation screenings and Saturday mornings fuelled by classic cartoons and unlimited cereal.
The Revue isn't simply putting old movies back on the big screen. It's finding increasingly imaginative reasons for audiences to experience them together. Here, film history is something you participate in.
Love at First Site (Visit): Inside Toronto's Vegas-Style Elopement Chapel, Two of Hearts Chapel
Hannah Stein reflects on building a love letter to Toronto, creating a space where couples can celebrate with authenticity and pizzaz
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
Most often, we think of weddings as celebrations of the devotion between two people. Yet, before we can devote ourselves to a partner, we first have to remain devoted to the life we want to build.
For Two of Hearts Chapel founder Hannah Stein, that meant refusing to accept a version of a wedding that was aesthetically basic and boring, not to mention egregiously overpriced. Overwhelmed and underwhelmed by lacklustre "big wedding" options, she imagined something more fun. A place where couples could celebrate on their own terms, leaving with treasured memories instead of years of debt.
So, she created a space where couples are invited to begin the next chapter of their lives surrounded by whimsy, leaving behind the pressure of a traditional wedding in favour of the simple luxury of enjoy the moment.
One year after opening its doors, we connected with Hannah to reflect on her journey into the wedding industry, the joy of building a business unlike anything else in Toronto, why the most meaningful ceremonies are often the least complicated and what witnessing dozens of love stories has taught her about devotion—to one another and to ourselves.