- 🎬 Event · 51st Toronto International Film Festival, from 10 to 20 September 2026
- 📍 Address · 118 Yorkville Avenue, Toronto, Canada
- 🏨 Capacity · 62 rooms and 15 suites, meaning 77 keys
- 🎥 Distinctive feature · The Norman Jewison Cinema, the hotel’s private screening room
- ⭐ Accolades · Forbes Five Star, 2 Michelin Keys, member of The Leading Hotels of the World
The Toronto International Film Festival takes over the city from 10 to 20 September 2026 for its 51st edition. In Yorkville, The Hazelton hotel has an asset that its neighbors do not: its own screening room, named after one of Canada’s greatest directors.
Why hotels matter as much as screening rooms during TIFF
TIFF is not just a festival of screenings: it is a market. Distribution rights are negotiated there, award campaigns are launched, and a large portion of these conversations takes place outside the screening rooms. For ten days, Yorkville hotels serve as offices for studios, agencies, and international sellers.
This role has a concrete consequence for Toronto’s hotel industry: the second week of September is not a tourism week, it is a week of long stays, privatized lounges, and continuous dining. It is prepared a year in advance.
The Hazelton: 77 keys at the corner of Yorkville and Hazelton Avenue
The hotel occupies 118 Yorkville Avenue, in the heart of the district that concentrates galleries, fashion boutiques, and downtown dining. It features 62 rooms and 15 suites, making it just 77 keys for an establishment of this standing, with an average surface area exceeding 57 square meters and 2.75-meter ceilings.
The property claims a local singularity: it is the only five-star hotel in Toronto whose rooms feature a balcony, whether accessible or Juliet. An incidental detail eleven months of the year, but invaluable in September, when a private terrace doubles as a meeting room.
The Norman Jewison Cinema, the advantage the others lack
The hotel boasts its own private screening room, the Norman Jewison Cinema, named after the Canadian director of In the Heat of the Night and Moonstruck, who passed away in 2024 and founded the Canadian Film Centre. For a festival where press screenings and private viewings are negotiated by the hour, having a cinema inside the hotel changes the nature of the stay.
Alongside this, the property offers the Yorkville Room, the Neil Young Room, and an executive boardroom: the hotel’s interior toponymy alone tells the story of Toronto’s relationship with its artists.
ONE Restaurant, the terrace where the festival unfolds
The hotel’s restaurant, ONE Restaurant, opens onto Yorkville Avenue with a terrace that becomes, during TIFF, one of the city’s premier vantage points. Room service runs twenty-four hours a day, which, for a clientele adjusted to multiple time zones, is less about luxury and more about logistics.
The rest of the amenities follow the same self-contained philosophy: a Valmont spa, an indoor saltwater swimming pool, a hammam, and a fitness center.
What the rankings say about the property
The Hazelton holds five Forbes stars, two Michelin Keys, and the CAA Five-Diamond certification, and belongs to The Leading Hotels of the World. In a North American market dominated by major groups, the hotel remains independent, which partly explains its ability to transform into a private headquarters for ten days.
→ All our coverage of The Hazelton Hotel (5 articles)
