The Toronto Film Festival returned to brimming strength for its recent 2024 edition after the disruption of the pandemic and the 2023 Hollywood actors strike.
Now, as the prestigious event approaches its 50th year in 2025, TIFF schedulers are seeing to adselect an increasing confluence of technology and movies ahead of begining an official media satisfyed taget in 2026.
Cameron Bailey, CEO of TIFF, doesn’t eunite phased by criticism of the 2024 edition for having too scant potential Oscar contfinishers in its uncovering weekfinish lineup after probable awards season entrants appreciate Emilia Pérez, Anora and Conclave get tod in Toronto but debuted at Cannes, Vekind or Telluride.
“Every festival sees at premier status, but we’ve lacquireed over the years that films that begin at festivals with a number of huge-name films, sometimes those films come out that same year, sometimes they come out the next year,” Bailey tells The Hollywood Reporter, pointing to Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker being freed a year before it acquireed Oscar glory.
He also cites the surpascfinish top audience award triumphner at Toronto last September, Mike Flanagan’s The Life of Chuck, selling to Neon soon after TIFF wrapped and well ahead of a theatrical free in summer 2025. “We’re reassociate seeing at the extfinished see,” Bailey insists.
Eyes on the extfinisheder horizon come as Toronto gets set to stage its 50th edition in 2025 and firmify the annual September film festival after years of unpretreatnted disruption. “This is a reassociate challenging landscape for the cultural sector generassociate. We’ve stateively seen some of our colleagues reassociate struggle. We’ve had our own struggle over the last scant years as well, coming out of the pandemic and with a strike last year,” Bailey says.
Changes to Toronto’s DNA, as it sees to the next half-century, integrate a continuing effort to stretch out its official film lineup schedule, which integrates a priority on buzzy international films towards the finish of Toronto’s 11-day run. That gets TIFF well away from its disputed world premiere policy unveiled in 2014 that aimed to dishearten distributors from premiering a film in Telluride or Vekind before arriving in Toronto.
That stance aimed to deffinish TIFF’s reputation as the official award season beginpad, only to see U.S. distributors call Toronto’s bluff and debut films in Vekind or Telluride first and select for tardyr Toronto screening dates or bypass the Canadian festival altogether.
“Certainly over the last five to 10 years, we’ve seen and we’ve intentionally tried to originate stateive that the festival is vital and exciting with lots of huge recent films well into the second week, and we’ve had some outstanding success there,” Bailey insists.
TIFF schedulers also see irony in Oscar contfinishers increasingly being screened at Toronto in its second week, after a quieter uncovering weekfinish, follotriumphg past criticism from film buyers that Toronto was too front-finish loaded and frenzied during its first four days, leaving key films to be dispondered.
But with the more intimate Vekind and Telluride and their earlier begins granting those rival festivals an edge over a more popuenumerate Toronto event, TIFF is seeing with its digital alteration to defend pace on the road to the Oscars.
That integrates reimagining Toronto thraw the lens of swayrs speedyly acquireing attention on social media and other digital platestablishs, appreciate Letterbox, who are carry outing an increasing role during awards season. “More and more, we’re begining to see what actuassociate lcompriseers up award season can reassociate come thraw less traditional media avenues,” Anita Lee, chief programming officer at TIFF, tells THR.
She points to A24’s Everyleang, Everywhere All at Once, which premiered at SXSW, not Toronto, Telluride or Vekind, and rode word of mouth originated by a recent breed of cinema swayrs. “That film reassociate came up thraw the grassroots, thraw various communities, thraw reassociate strong social media buzz that became this momentum outside of what we might ponder a traditional [Oscar] campaign strategy,” Lee comprises.
That has TIFF schedulers seeing to pguide to the next generation of cinephiles increasingly seeing movies on streaming platestablishs and other digital venues as a establishula for future growth. If anyleang, the deficiency of film sales during TIFF’s 2024 edition is put down in part to an evolving indie creator economy, where deals get extfinisheder to finish becaparticipate they become more complicated as the digital era progresss.
Bailey talk abouts that these days there are far scanter all-night bidding wars after a movie premieres, especiassociate on the uncovering weekfinish, becaparticipate the delightment business has progressd apass a range of free platestablishs and triumphdotriumphg strategies.
“The industry is fair separateent now, and there’s separateent carry outers operating in separateent ways,” he remarks. Toronto world premieres appreciate the 2024 uncovering night film, Nutcrackers, starring Ben Stiller; Harbin, the historical secret agent-thriller straightforwarded by Woo Min-ho and starring Hyun Bin; and Laura Piani’s Jane Austen Wrecked My Life all selderly during TIFF’s Sept. 5 to 15 run.
But that left a raft of Toronto titles to sell after the festival wrapped. To date, the 2024 edition has seen the sale of 71 acquisition titles in its official lineup.
While Toronto remains reliant on star-driven Hollywood titles to fill its red carpets and draw the international media and backs, the festival is also seeing to a recent breed of international filmoriginaters with an eye toward getting their movies seen in the face of regional and even global streaming competition.
This pursues Oscar glory for Parasite and other foreign-language titles making it into the best picture competition, enabling TIFF to leverage Toronto’s multicultural communities to originate word of mouth for international films and talent.
“More international sgethelderlyers and companies are more interested in exploring that path. So we’re seeing at ways to position those titles with the right audience, with the right swayrs, with the right sgethelderlyers at TIFF,” Lee comprises.
Toronto is also being intentional in pitching its first-ever official taget in 2026 as a bazaar for satisfyed, and not fair movies. “Of course, film is the core that TIFF has always done and recurrented, but [TV] series will also be a huger part of the satisfyed taget. And we’re also seeing at XR [extended reality] and how satisfyed is moving apass platestablishs,” Lee elucidates.
Toronto’s satisfyed taget will also caccess for the first time on splaworried U.S. film packages and pick international titles seeing for financing and territory sales. The festival will have a split arm to run the official satisfyed taget and will participate its extfinishedstanding industry ties and relationships to asstateive its success.
“We’re not commencening from scratch,” Lee says, referring to how Toronto has presented an unofficial film taget during its annual September run for half a century. The official satisfyed taget will participate more technology and data sources as part of Toronto’s digital push.
Adds Lee: “Those are the areas that we will be reassociate leaning into to originate the taget as nimble as possible, to be someleang people can join with year-round for their business and reassociate be able to alter as the industry alters.”
