Toronto Film Festival Announces Plans for Official Market in 2026

 The Toronto International Film Festival, finishing off a heady and booming 2024/25 market, has unveiled plans to launch its first-ever formal content market in 2026 alongside its traditional film festival program. This development marks a significant shift for TIFF, which has previously operated without an official bazaar for buyers and sellers. Brandon Blake, entertainment lawyer at Blake & Wang P.A., has the exciting news for us.

                                                                        Brandon Blake

Broadened Offerings

In a story that broke late last week, TIFF’s chief programming officer, Anita Lee, announced the festival’s intention to diversify its offerings and establish itself as a robust platform for launching and marketing films and facilitating their buying and selling. This is quite a change from older TIFF iterations. The new market aims to create opportunities for international companies, national promotion agencies, and emerging producers to participate more fully in TIFF’s ecosystem.

 

Key features of the planned official market include:

●     A co-producing forum

●     A project market

●     A works-in-progress salon

●     Packaging and financing opportunities

●     Talent development and matching initiatives

Going Beyond Films

As of its 2026 edition, the market will extend beyond just film sales to include TV series, Extended Reality/XR projects, and more immersive digital content. Indeed, “content” was the word of the day, as TIFF seeks to expand into an entire content market rather than solely a film market, hoping to stay relevant for a more digital entertainment landscape after 49 years on the go. TIFF has already increased its focus on sales titles in recent years, likely in preparation for this change.

The new market will complement TIFF’s existing “Industry Selects” program, which has successfully platformed market films to specific industry cohorts. Additionally, TIFF plans to develop a Canadian pavilion to support and showcase Canadian companies, producers, and stakeholders within the market. We’ve also been teased with some upcoming custom technology for the official market, though we have little details on what that will look like.

Exciting things are coming to one of the world's oldest and most-established film festivals. It will be exciting to see if TIFF continues to expand its role as a gateway to the North American market for global cinema.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is Kung Fu Panda 4 the Key to a Reinvigorated 2024 Box Office?

Image
 With Dune: Part Two having finally powered up the 2024 box office, it's time to build on that impetus if the wider box office recovery is to continue. There could be another strong contender lurking in the wings for this weekend’s releases- but it will doubtless surprise you to learn that this hope lies with the fourth installment of the animated Kung Fu Panda saga! Blake & Wang P.A. entertainment attorney Los Angeles , Brandon Blake, has more on this ironic twist for us.                                                                          Brandon Blake Two $40M Grosses on the Cards For the first time since July 2023 and the Barbenheimer dual release, we have a chance at not one, but two, films grossing over $40M this weekend. In fact, those figures may top $50M! While Dune: Part Two...
Read more

Netflix Ad Tier Turns in Fantastic Growth

Image
 What a difference half a year can make! With Netflix’s ad-supported subscription tier first launched only 18 months ago, the streamer has managed to nearly double its subscriber base since the start of 2024. Blake & Wang P.A. entertainment lawyer , Brandon Blake, fills in the details. Brandon Blake Impressive Subscriber Gains Netflix’s total subscribers for the ad-supported tier now number 40 million monthly active users. In January 2024, it was 23 million. The streamer was understandably gleeful to reveal this news at its first in-person Upfronts presentation in New York earlier this month. At its first-ever Upfronts presentation, which was held digitally in 2023, the ad tier had 5 million monthly active users.   Additionally, we were told that 40% of active signups now opt for the ad-supported plan, in countries where it is currently available. Of course, much of this can be attributed to a rather kind price ($7 domestically) for this tier, well below most of ...
Read more

Hulu on Disney+ is Officially Here

Image
While the Hulu on Disney+ Beta bundle has been live since last year, we have officially reached the point of full integration. Intriguingly, much of the executive focus on the new bundle has been around the technical advancements needed to unite the two platforms. You could take a look at entertainment lawyer Brandon Blake, from Blake & Wang P.A., looks in more depth at the united offering.                                              Brandon Blake Technical Advancements While few viewers are likely to know (or care, frankly) about the backstage technology that powers their viewing experience, Disney executives have been keen to hammer home the potential for happier, healthier subscriber engagement and retention with the new tech shift. They have gone as far as to call it the “most extensive technical advancement” since launch. At this point, it is clear that they ...
Read more