TORONTO -- The Toronto International Film Festival officially ended Sunday, but in reality, the party was over five days earlier when the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington stunned those attending.

For the usually effervescent festival, it was as if the helium balloons dropped to the ground, the house lights went up, and the DJ packed up and left. Like worried children whose parents are late picking them up after a party, many festivalgoers were left stranded, waiting for that ride home they feared was not coming anytime soon.

"We came here for a purpose, and now that purpose is gone," Writers and Artists' Chris Schmidt said. "It's such a shame. Last weekend I remember walking around thinking: 'Gosh, this is such a great festival. Toronto is so beautiful.' Now it's all changed."

Indeed, it had. The opening-weekend festivities seemed a lifetime away, but only a few days earlier, the annual celebration of film had kicked off with characteristic high spirits as moviegoers hailed cabs to take them to Roy Thomson Hall for the back-to-back Sept. 7 Galas for Scott Hicks' "Hearts in Atlantis" and Antoine Fuqua's "Training Day."

During the festival's first weekend, buyers jammed the Elgin Theatre for "Buffalo Soldiers," the most highly anticipated film debuting at the festival without distribution. (Miramax Films eventually picked up rights.) While some attendees made their way to the afterparty at the Left Bank, others chose to rush through the hot, humid city to the screening of "Prozac Nation."

The good times continued to roll Sept. 9 as festivalgoers bawled their eyes out at the Gala premiere of New Line Cinema's "Life as a House." Director Irwin Winkler juggled five outstanding performances from Kevin Kline, Kristin Scott Thomas, Hayden Christensen, Mary Steenburgen and Jena Malone, making a tough-to-please Hollywood audience weep like they hadn't since "Terms of Endearment."

At the studio's dinner afterward at the Pangea restaurant, "House's" teen stars, Malone and Christensen, used instant cameras handed out as party favors to snap pictures commemorating their big night. At nearby Bistro 990, Paul Walker and Leelee Sobieski celebrated the premiere of "Joy Ride," and those who trickled over from Pangea with their Instamatics continued to snap away.

Sept. 10 brought the Hughes brothers' "From Hell" and a party afterward at the trendy Rain. Everyone went out into the night to attend other parties then returned to their hotels — unaware of the nightmare that awaited them at daybreak.

Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001: Unused ticket stubs to the canceled screenings of "Waking Life," "Lovely and Amazing," "Hotel," "The Grey Zone," "Monsoon Wedding" and "Cet amour la" are suddenly historical scrapbook items from celebrations that will never take place.

For everyone, where they were when they heard the news is etched in their minds — and everyone's story is different.

"I had just walked out of an early-morning screening of 'World Traveler' and called my office immediately to tell a colleague that the two actors we represented in the movie were terrific, and to please patch them through to me on the phone so I could tell them myself," Schmidt said. "He said: 'Chris, are you crazy? A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center!' I thought he was joking because he knows I hate to fly. Then I looked around at all the other people on their cell phones who had just come out of the same screening. Everyone was getting the news at the same time, and their faces were all dropping at once."

The Park Hyatt Hotel, the center of the festival, lapsed into mass confusion as festival director Piers Handling and managing director Michelle Maheux announced at a news conference that all events for the day would be canceled.

Suddenly, the need to call loved ones back home became a priority.

Across the street at the Four Seasons, agents, executives, journalists, publicists and stars were stripped of all labels as they grieved together. 20th Century Fox's suite on the third floor closed down, and studio publicists, the Hughes brothers and anyone else who needed a place to go huddled together in Fox executive Hutch Parker's suite on the 16th floor.

"It presented a rare opportunity for people to get to know each other on a human level," UTA's Howard Cohen said. "We were saying the other day, 'What are we going to do for the next few days?' and someone said, 'Well, we're gonna have to talk to each other.' "

And talk they did. Fox Searchlight's dinner Wednesday night at Sotto Sotto provided an excuse to escape from the confines of a hotel room and never-ending updates on CNN. Searchlight executives including Joe Pichirallo, Joshua Deighton, Rosanne Korenberg, producer Brad Zions and filmmaker Richard Linklater welcomed the distraction.

But the new reality was not easy to escape. At Fox Searchlight's screening of the romantic comedy "Kissing Jessica Stein," the audience was reminded that things will never be the same each time the New York skyline, with the World Trade Center's twin towers in full view, appeared.

People began plotting their escape — by rental car, bus, train or chartered plane — to get home to their loved ones.

"I want to be with my sons and help them understand what is going on right now," Intermedia's Jere Hausfater said Wednesday night. "I want to be with them and explain to them the significance of what the world is going through."

"It's not that I want to get out of here, it's that I want to get home," UTA's Chris Day said. "I want to be where people feel the magnitude of what's going on."

During the next few days, the only business conducted seemed to be how or when to leave. Each day, fewer festivalgoers remained as updates were received from those had who made it out. By Thursday, some studios had sent planes for their stranded executives and stars. ICM's Chris Andrews, Nick Styne and attorney David Webber, who had decided to drive home together, were already passing through Denver.

Meanwhile, the Gala screenings continued without much fanfare. Audiences seemed to appreciate getting lost in Miramax's romantic comedy "Serendipity," though the seats reserved for the stars stayed empty. Things were more serious later Thursday evening at filmmaker Istvan Szabo's "Taking Sides" as star Harvey Keitel called for a moment of silence before adding somberly, "Ladies and gentlemen, take your sides."

On Friday, CAA's Richard Lovett chartered a Lear jet to fetch his associates Kevin Iwashina, Adam Krentzman, Craig Gering, Jeremy Plager and Jim Toth as well as Norm Golightly, who heads CAA client Nicolas Cage's Saturn Films. "It feels so great to be back," Iwashina said shortly after the plane landed in Los Angeles.

Back in Toronto, the seven o'clock candlelight vigil to commemorate the international day of mourning started at the 6:30 p.m. Gala of "Enigma." As moviegoers poured into Thomson Hall, a single flickering candle rested on a stool on stage. Maheaux, exhausted and somber, asked the audience to stand for a moment of silence. She apologized for the stars' seats that remained empty. "So it's me again, folks," she said guiltily. But the audience applauded in a genuine show of support. Her familiar face had become a source of comfort at what had become an uncomfortable festival.

Those remaining in Toronto had run an emotional gauntlet from panic to grief to fear to anger and, for some, survivor's guilt. The party was over — it had been for days. And everybody just wanted to go home.

© 2001 VNU eMedia, Inc