It’s hard out here for a journalist reporting on TIFF! For 11 days we join the herd of writers that come in from all over the world as we are united in our love for film. By day three or so we are also united in our utter exhaustion from running to too many films, too many interviews gone awry, too many parties where we’re asked one too many times who we write for, and, of course, too little sleep or food to propel us toward yet another packed day of providing TIFF coverage to the masses.

To prepare us for TIFF, the lovely ladies at EGPR invited us to their exclusive one day only Essentials Lounge with products and services that are, well, essential to our sanity for the following week and a half. The following were our highlights:

• Saucony shoes 

During the “festival of festivals” we do our fair share of running (literally) from interview suite to interview suite (usually from the first day to the Wednesday of the following week), then venue to venue in order to fit in as much as possible into our days. Let’s face it, we’re no Bryce Dallas Howard in Jurassic World so we can’t do that much running in heels (as much as we wish we could!). Thus we were incredibly grateful when we were gifted a SUPER comfortable and super cute pair of Saucony running shoes. An essential indeed.

• Colmar jacket 

We can all agree that the weather in Toronto isn’t exactly predictable. One minute it’s boiling hot and the next it’s pouring rain, and don’t even get us started on the brutal, seemingly endless winter months. We’re very serious when we say that we pack a change of shoes, clothes and a jacket (for those freezing cold movie theatres) every single day of the festival. Hermione’s bottomless bag has got nothing on our well equipped TIFF purse! At the lounge, Colmar, a luxury sport retailer, gave us a very stylish yet versatile fall jacket that we will have plenty of use for in the next few days.

• Smashbox Cosmetics  

We admit it – we’re a little bit of a tomboy. In other words, we have no clue how to create the perfect red lip or smokey eye or the first inkling of how to contour (maybe we should have kept up with the Kardashians a little more). Thankfully a very understanding Smashbox makeup professional was on hand at the lounge to help us figure out all of the above.

In addition to these amazing products we were also given goodies from Vitaminwater, KMS California, Simon & Schuster Canada, For Beloved One, SkinCeuticals, and delicious eats from Fully Loaded T.O.

Now we’re definitely ready to tackle TIFF!