Toronto International Film Festival Tries Adding a Market

The booths, lounges and displays fill the third-floor exhibition hall of the Metro Toronto Convention Center.Some are manned by representatives of film commissions from around the world, promoting their countries as shooting locations, or hawking local projects in handouts, postcards and branded knickknacks.Production companies, seeking foreign distribution for completed films or potential ones, display posters and play trailers.

The booth for RDV Canada, an initiative to promote the local film industry, is the busiest at the moment, the site of a reception, with finger food and beverages aplenty.Most important, everywhere you look there are tables ready for distributors, executives, agents and filmmakers to pull up a chair and make a deal.This giant hall is the centerpiece of TIFF: The Market, the newest addition to the long-running Toronto International Film Festival.It is, at least on the surface, a striking departure from the event’s hard-earned reputation.

“TIFF was — or is — a festival festival,” Anna Godas, chief executive of the documentary distribution company Dogwoof, said in an interview.“You go to watch films, and the perception, at least for us, is that buyers go there to watch films and not necessarily to do a bunch of meetings.”But the festival has been contemplating expansion for quite some time.

According to its chief executive, Cameron Bailey, the organization began looking into the possibility of adding a market component as early as 2012 — moving from its long-held position as an exhibition-only event, like the New York Film Festival, to a hybrid along the lines of Cannes or Berlin.At those events, the glamorous screenings, red carpets and news conferences exist side by side with a busy market, where film packages are presented, pitches are made and deals are closed....