Star-Studded Golden Globes Party Kicks Off The Toronto Film Festival’s Opening Weekend

The Golden Globes staked its claim to the Toronto Film Festival with an official return to its annual opening weekend party., this year entitled “The 2025 Road to the Golden Globes.” After a soft launch in 2024, the Globes made it official this year that Saturday is their night as stars celebrated while meeting the organization’s newly-expanded membership.

Granted, the party may not have lived up to the halcyon days when it took place at the Windsor and Arms, with every celebrity in town smoking cigarettes outside. This version, hosted by the Four Seasons, was a more elevated experience for both civilian guests and the celebrities in attendance, including Channing Tatum, Sydney Sweeney, Paul Mescal, Kirsten Dunst, Andrew Scott, and many more.

Yes, the line to get into the party was long. But the process was efficient, and once inside, the venue was spacious enough to allow schmoozing with relative ease. At the party, Sydney Sweeney told me that the Christy premiere on Friday was the most emotional of her career. She sat behind former professional boxer, Christy Martin, whom she plays in the film, and couldn’t help but cry as the credits rolled. Sweeney felt a deep connection to the whole cast as they made their way onto the stage for their Q&A. Whatever online drama she had experienced in the last couple of weeks seemed behind her as she looked forward to the release of this film—and its potential awards season campaign.

Nina Hoss, co-star of the Amazon film Hedda—based on the play Hedda Gabler, and set to premiere Sunday night—was excited to finally see the film with an audience. At the party, Hoss (who was spotted chatting with Hedda costar Tessa Thompson) said that when she read the script, she was excited by the idea the idea of changing the gender of her character; she was interested to see what audiences thought about the decision, made by director Nia DaCosta.

The perpetually booked Tom Blyth had come from the premiere of Wasteman, co-starring David Jonsson of Industry and Alien Romulus fame. He had just seen Rachel Zegler, his former co-star in the Hunger Games prequel, on the West End playing Evita and sang her praises. Having just wrapped the Netflix film People We Meet on Vacation, Blyth was just as enthusiastic about his co-star in the film, Emily Bader, whom he compared to Meg Ryan. Blyth has four films releasing this year, and admitted to occasionally being confused about which one he’d be promoting at what times during his recent press tours.

Golden Globes President Helen Hoelene was the woman of the hour at the party, greeting guests and making introductions to other members. She was thrilled to state that the Globes party at TIFF “marked the start of the season”—and was glad to see that guests were excited to return to the organization’s annual custom at the festival.