A view of the Lightbox's main control centre (think HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey) as seen from the exhibition floor

It’s been in the planning stages for a decade (and under construction for what seems like even longer), but the TIFF Bell Lightbox at King and John is set to open its doors to the public, for real, on September 12, smack in the middle of the thirty-fifth annual Toronto International Film Festival. As the new headquarters for TIFF, whose various operations are now divided between Jackman Hall, 2 Carlton Street, and various screening spaces throughout the city, expectations for the space have been running high. More than just an office building with a bunch of theatres, the Lightbox has promised to serve as a site for education about visual culture, a gallery space, and, more generally, a shining beacon of Toronto’s world class film culture. Lofty goals all.

But if today’s behind-the-scenes media tour at the Lightbox is any indication, the venue is well on its way to establishing a name for itself as the year-round locus of cinema in Toronto. It’s still very much under construction, but it’s becoming easier to conceive of the Lightbox as a unified space, and not just a bunch of scaffolding, concrete, and puffed-up press release rhetoric.

Photos courtesy of TIFF.