Sympatico/MSN is using an interactive microsite for the Toronto International Film Festival (tiff.sympatico.msn.ca) to engage film fans with celebrity coverage — and a new movie database.

The festival site, sponsored by Bell, will call on fans to get interactive with a Celeb Spotter tool, which lets users upload locations where they spotted their favorite stars and plots all sightings on a virtual map — including pictures. During the festival, the site will serve up video content, synopses, reviews, celeb photos and interviews, and trailers of every major film at TIFF. A contest will give users the chance to win access to an exclusive TIFF event.

The ad-supported Sympatico/MSN Movies site (movies.sympatico.msn.ca) also aims to give visitors tools to plan their nights out with cinema listings and show times — alongside a database of filmographies, biographies, news, commentary, trailers and film clips.

According to comScore, Sympatico.MSN.ca attracted more than 19 million unique visitors in June.

From Media in Canada