There are some 50 French productions and co-productions screening at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) festival this year but rising costs, waning world premieres and less business are keeping many French buyers and sellers from making the trans-Atlantic trek.
“It’s simply too expensive,” said one French sales agent.
Florencia Gil, head of international sales at Urban Sales, said her company’s “on-site business at TIFF has severely decreased over the past five years” – a factor she attributed to “low buyer attendance and a less commercially appealing selection” with most titles coming from France having already premiered in Cannes or Venice. Without such first-time exposure, these titles see “very poor press coverage”, she explained, adding: “It has become an overpriced market for European executives.”
While the festival’s vast selection is a major lure for audiences, the head of sales at another French company, who preferred to remain anonymous, said, “There are too many films so films in the side sections that aren’t major American packages tend to slip through unnoticed and don’t interest buyers or media.”
Jean Labadie, founder and president of France’s Le Pacte which is distributing TIFF titles Emilia Perez, Anora and Meet The Barbarians and is attending this year, also cited “too many films” in Toronto. Consequently, “little by little, other distributors have stopped going”.
Another leading French sales agent confirmed the lack of deal-making opportunities: “There are fewer and fewer buyers and the ones who are there are more focused on screenings and less on taking meetings and doing business.”
The timing of TIFF is also complicated, overlapping with Venice, just ahead of late September’s San Sebastian International Film Festival (SSIFF) and mid-October’s Rome Film Festival and parallel MIA market, and close enough to the American Film Market in early November. “[That] forces all of us to make a choice,” said a third seller.
“The Europeans are staying in Europe,” a fourth sales agent added of what has seen most of the French industry opt to stay close to home for Venice before heading to San Sebastian. The Spanish festival earned praise from the third seller for “really taking care of buyers and sellers” complete with invitations and several costs covered by the festival.
Getting them back
TIFF chief programming officer Anita Lee told Screen: “We are not under a rock. We are very aware of the industry’s concerns and this decision to launch an official market is in response to us having listened and heard and starting to address and overcome many of these challenges.”
San Sebastian remains clear its ambition is not to be a market, and AFM does not have a parallel festival platform. TIFF organisers are thus hoping to draw the French and other European industries across the ocean for a one-stop-shop journey as it gears up for the launch of its 2026 official content market. Billed as a central hub for buying and selling features, series, IP, and immersive and innovative projects, it is supported by a three-year C$23m ($16.9m) investment by the Canadian federal government.
Lee said bringing costs down for international attendees is “a priority area for us” and TIFF is already working to make the event worth the long journey.
“The cost of attending will have a greater value. It will mean not only coming to Toronto to launch a film in official selection, but also coming to do business on a full slate of films – buying, selling and packaging,” Lee explained.
Despite TIFF being an “unofficial market for decades,” she said the 2026 event will provide a framework to “make it easier and more efficient for international companies to network, meet buyers and make connections while they’re here.”
The phased-in transition has already kicked into action with an expanded co-production forum, a works-in-progress showcase, a project financing framework and other services that will facilitate business, but also promote films for sale and looking for financing from the packaging stage.
Organisers are also working towards a more cohesive hotel strategy for market delegates. Beyond the direct marketplace, other festival initiatives include country spotlights and programmes increasing significantly beyond film from a bolstered Primetime line-up to a focus on IP.
An expanded programme with panels and keynotes will allow the festival and sponsors to provide more complimentary invitations for international executives and further offset expenses.
In the meantime, the fourth anonymous sales agent said Toronto is “still an essential market for North American sales. Without a premiere at TIFF, it’s hard to sell in the US.” They described the new market plans as “ambitious “ and “a good move”, adding what most French sales agents have told Screen: “We’ll go if there are buyers and the market can be centred on films in selection.”
The sellers have urged the festival to focus particularly on buyers from Europe and Asia to balance the already strong US and Canadian presence.
Unifrance to return
French film promotion organisation Unifrance does not have a stand at TIFF this year for the first time in more than a decade (other than a pandemic pause), with French sales agents preferring to move around the city.
Unifrance is planning to attend the 2026 market in force, however, and is ramping up that budget accordingly, said executive director Daniela Elstner. “It’s a festival that continues to self-examine and ask questions, and an important market for a very long time that can become one again.”
The number of sales agents attending the festival with Unifrance had declined from around 20 companies in pre-pandemic 2019, to 16 in 2022, to just nine last year.
French sales companies making the trip to Toronto this year have included Charades, The Bureau, Be For Film, mk2 Films, Pyramide International, WTFilms, Indie Sales, Totem Films, Other Angle and Films Boutique, although major players including Gaumont, SND and Pathé have opted to sit this year out.
On the festival side, Lee and director of programming Robyn Citizen continue to work to bolster the number of French titles in the official selection, spending a week in Paris each May after Cannes “sitting in Unifrance’s cinema and watching all of the French films… France and French film have been and always will continue to be key for TIFF,” said Lee.
This year’s tally of 50 French productions or co-productions compares to 44 last year and 47 in 2022 – down from the pre-Covid years of 2018 and 2019 when, respectively, 67 and 57 titles were programmed.
Among this year’s French world premieres at TIFF are a few debut features: Laura Piani’s romantic comedy Jane Austen Wrecked My Life which Sony Pictures Classics has bought for North America and multiple territories; Koya Kamura’s South Korea-set Winter In Sokcho; Guillaume Senez’s Belgian-French co-production A Missing Part; and Thibault Emin’s body horror Else.
Sophie Deraspe is also world-premiering her Canadian-French co-production Shepherds and Julie Delpy is in town with the international premiere of her immigration comedy Meet The Barbarians. A tribute award is being presented to Emilia Perez’s French songwriting and composing duo Camille Dalmais and Clément Ducol.
The festival said it has no plans to shrink its selection in response to the complaints by not just French sellers but many European sellers of poor visibility for smaller auteur films. But it is moving towards streamlining sections, said Lee, including an “increasingly and intentionally more elevated Platform selection”.
While the star-studded vehicles at TIFF draw the major media attention, Lee said, “The reality is over 70% of programming at TIFF are international films and the percentage of French films is always high. Our challenge is to make them stand out and encourage more press to cover them.”
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