Amidst the two-week haze that is the Toronto International Film Festival, celebrity spotting is not as easy as you’d expect, what with the competing hordes of like-minded fans, bodyguards and kilometres of velvet rope.

Unless, that is, you’re staying at the Hazelton Hotel, Toronto’s king of luxury 
accommodation in the equally lavish Yorkville area. The 77-room (including 15 suites), granite-fortified nine-story hotel has been TIFF central since opening just prior to the 2007 event, and has since been the preferred HQ for film industry royalty who come for the technologically intuitive rooms: impeccably designed, minimal but warm, and sprawling at an average of 620 square feet.

But the hotel’s killer app—besides, you know, the mohair walls—is a $2-million, 25-seat silver screen theatre, which by next month will be packed by Hollywood’s key influencers taking in private screenings of this year’s top-rated films. Not to be left out of the action, ET Canada will broadcast from the lobby all festival long, dishing on celluloid and cellulite with equal froth.

Speaking of sustenance, ONE, the onsite restaurant ruled by star chef Mark McEwan and serving pricey comfort cuisine, is usually in various degrees of hopping, especially its three-season patio when the sun is out. Guests seeking privacy can order room service around the clock. Get here for a taste of the highlife this month, for the obvious reason that reservations closer to the festival will require a publicist, and because, as of next year, the Hazelton’s reign as the city’s only five-star property may be coming to an end with as many as half a dozen luxury hotels cutting their ribbons.

Rooms start at $395 per night.