One of citizen contributor Anastasia Tubanos's favourite TIFF highlights was chatting up celebs like Zach Braff. (Chris Young/Canadian Press)

By Anastasia Tubanos, citizen contributor

Another year and another TIFF has gone by, but not without some behind-the-scenes adventures. Whether it was perusing through a gifting suite like a celebrity, chatting to guests on the red carpet or getting the lowdown from industry professionals on how friendly TIFF is to emerging filmmakers, being a citizen blogger for the CBC has given me the opportunity to explore several different angles outside of watching and reviewing movies, which have all been eye-opening in their own ways.

That being said, there are some moments that ended up standing out more than others. Some of the stories I heard from TIFF-goers as I spontaneously chatted them up definitely deserve some mention. Like the one who told me about the time Sandra Oh walked by and pinched his butt (celebs do that?!).

All in all, these were my top three TIFF moments:

1. Getting to interview celebrities on the red carpet at the Spotlight Awards. I got to chat up Zach Braff, Faye Dunaway, Carlo Rota and  Jason Priestley. But the most entertaining interview went to The Bachelorette's Justin Rego, not only because he drew the largest crowd of women taking photographs out of anyone on the red carpet, but because of his unapologetic ranting off-camera about the misleading and peace-disturbing nature of producers on reality shows. He seemed truly enraged with the lack of reality in reality shows. I just chuckled. And swooned, as professionally as possible of course, because he was "Cute" with a capital C.

2. Getting the VIP star treatment at the BMW Gifting Suite, specifically getting to sample Mayavii's Black Pearl Anti-Gravity mask. Not only is Ilan Halfon (the co-owner of Mayavii) one of the most generous conversationalists I have ever met, this product I got to try out looked like it could be a treatment out of a futuristic sci-fi movie. It was a deep sparkling midnight black that was refreshing to the touch, smelled like melon and cucumbers and, wait for it, was removed with a magnet so there was no friction on the skin. It was definitely a "wow" moment.

3. Getting free tickets to the premiere of Easy A (thanks to @karmacakedotca and BlackBerry) and getting to hear an in-depth Q&A with the cast and crew of the film. The funniest part may have been when an audience member asked Penn Badgley (leading man in the film, as well as crush-worthy dude on Gossip Girl) if she could give him a gift certificate to say she hooked up with him (mirroring the propositioning that happened to Emma Stone's character in the film.) It was a joke, of course. And he jokingly said no.