After robust business in Venice, insiders say Toronto will be the “turning point” for determining whether buyers will still write checks amid the continuing labor disputes: “[It] could be a killer market — or it could be dead.”
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The reviews from the Lido were some of the most enthusiastic in years — critics raved over Bradley Cooper’s Maestro and Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things — and the Biennale saw multiple deals for the festival’s buzziest titles: Neon snatched worldwide rights to Ava DuVernay’s Origin, starring Aunjanue Ellis and Jon Bernthal; Mubi picked up Sofia Coppola’s Elvis-era biopic Priscilla, an A24 film in the U.S., for several markets, including the U.K., Germany and Latin America; and Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist, his follow-up to his Oscar winner Drive My Car, closed multiple deals across Europe and Asia after locking down domestic distribution with Sideshow and Janus Films shortly before the festival.
It’s at TIFF where people will begin to see the true impact of the dual strikes for the independent market and whether restrictions put in place by SAG-AFTRA to allow productions to go ahead — the so-called interim agreements —will spur or disrupt the indie ecosystem.
Lionsgate locked in domestic rights to The Crow reboot in a reported eight-figure deal with CAA on the eve of TIFF, snatching up the long-in-development project.
For those with domestic distribution in place, TIFF is the perfect platform for a launch into the North American market and to kick off an awards campaign (though this year, with the SAG-AFTRA strike preventing many actors from promoting their movies, the impact will be muted).
For those without U.S. distribution — see Richard Linklater’s action comedy Hit Man, Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut, The Woman of the Hour, or Viggo Mortensen’s neo-Western The Dead Don’t Hurt — the festival, with its always enthusiastic crowds, is one of the most effective shop windows for winning over hesitant buyers.
Most expect the studios and streamers —traditionally Toronto’s biggest buyers — to hold off on big acquisitions, at least for films with interim agreements binding them to certain conditions, including more generous residuals for talent.
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