It's easy to get distracted on your way to the box office at the Toronto International Film Festival's new year-round home, which celebrates its first anniversary on Sept. 12.

The atrium of the TIFF Bell Lightbox tempts you to gaze at screens swirling with snapshots from the latest film exhibits, and to follow the artifacts from the life of Indian actor-director Raj Kapoor that wind up a staircase.

At the Lightbox, however, movies are only part of the story.

"It's always busy around here," says TIFF artistic director Noah Cowan. "We hoped to really extend Toronto's passion for film past the 10 days of the film festival, and I think there's been great success in making that happen."

Born in 1976, the Toronto International Film Festival is a non-profit organization that has grown into hosting initiatives like filmmakers' panels, the Sprockets children's festival and the Cinematheque art-house cinema series.

The new five-storey heart of TIFF - which also serves as a base for a towering condo complex - was partly designed to attract talent and new audiences to year-round programs like film exhibitions, educational programs and professional workshops. The $198-million Lightbox project attracted donations from government, the non-profit sector and the corporate world - as well as a hefty gift of land to build on from the Reitman family.

A cultural centre for filmgoers

Part of the Lightbox's success, Cowan says, has been the ability to link TIFF's Cinematheque film series to its exhibitions in the new space. Partnerships with organizations like the queer film festival Inside Out and the Hot Docs documentary festival have also helped the place "feel like a cultural centre for filmgoers," Cowan adds.

The new building is a towering addition to the Toronto intersection of King and John. Timothy Neesam/CBC

An exhibit of original art by director Tim Burton at one its new galleries drew 110,000 guests, the organization says. The new building has helped TIFF boost its operating revenue by nearly $10 million to $33 million in 2011, and drawn a growing number of schools into its educational programs.

According to TIFF, 3,800 post-secondary students have participated in Higher Learning programs featuring talks by film figures like actor Gena Rowlands and Canadian director David Cronenberg. Another 7,600 elementary and secondary students have visited Lightbox galleries and exhibitions over the past year.

TIFF is also planning to use the facility as a centre for partnerships with several Ontario universities to develop teaching tools using new media like mobile phones, Cowan adds, but he declines to discuss the details.

A long time coming

"People always ask us what we do for Canadian cinema," Cowan says. "I've always said that the most important program we have for Canadian industry is showing their films."

He points to the Lightbox's showing of Quebec director Denis Villeneuve's film Incendies, which helped boost the profile of the Oscar-nominated film in English-speaking Canada. The movie has earned $4.7 million in Canada so far, according to industry monitor Services Zoom Inc.

"I think it's an excellent facility to see movies in," says Norman Wilner, senior film writer for Toronto's NOW Magazine. Without a neon marquee outside, though, Wilner says that many people walk by the Lightbox thinking it's just another condo building.

Wilner thinks TIFF is going out of its way to show accessible works, like films from Disney's back catalogue, but says it's inherently constrained from reaching a wide audience.

"The problem with a cinematheque," he explains, "is that everything by definition is going to be niche … you aren't going to be showing Transformers 3. I mean, you can't do that and keep your legitimacy. So they'll always be perceived as a little higher end, a little higher brow. The trick is getting people to actually know that it's there."

As for the film festival itself, TIFF reported 370,000 attendees in 2010. Cowan says having a dedicated, central building has been a major advantage.

"That's an enormous positive. Probably the biggest complaint we've received over the years is that the festival has no centre. Now, when any taxi driver or airport baggage handler is asked, 'I'm going to the festival, where do I go?,' they can actually say, 'Go to TIFF Bell Lightbox.'"

For moviegoers like Wilner, the biggest benefit may be the reputation the Lightbox confers on the films it screens.

"They're not doing this to make a buck off movies," Wilner says. "They're doing this to show films that people should be seeing."