Sony Picturesâ Tom Bernard has come to the Toronto International Film Festival every year since 1978. The eventâs growing reputation as a barometer of Oscar potential has more film executives falling for its charms.
The 11-day event, which kicked off last night, had until recently lacked the cachet of Cannes, Venice and Berlin. The commercial and critical success of Oscar winners âSlumdog Millionaireâ and âThe Kingâs Speechâ following screenings in Toronto has changed that.
The festival attracts audiences more aligned with mainstream tastes, making screenings there a better gauge of a filmâs commercial and critical chances. âSlumdog Millionaire,â about an Indian boyâs rise from poverty to game-show riches, won the biggest award in Toronto in 2008 before collecting eight Oscars. Two years later, âThe Kingâs Speechâ did the same at Tiff, as itâs known locally, and garnered four Academy Awards.
âYouâve got regular people that have shown up as if theyâd gone to the multiplex,â said Bernard, co-president of Sony Pictures Classics. (6758) âYou can feel the room, you can see if they get the jokes or the drama.â
Tiff is also a buying opportunity for movies that will play well in 2013, according to Ben Cotner, senior vice-president of acquisitions at Open Road Films, a distributor owned by the two largest U.S. cinema operators.
The festivalâs range contributes to its appeal as well, offering thrillers alongside art-house fare, movie executives said.
Sellerâs Market
âItâs a something-for-everyone festival, which is why buyers are drawn to it,â Cotner said. âThe timing is really great for anybody looking for movies for the first two quarters of next year since there havenât been any major festivals since Cannes.â
The festivalâs alignment with Oscar season helps. Toronto begins as summer blockbusters end their theatrical runs and Hollywood gears up to release award hopefuls. In 2004, Academy Awards organizers moved their annual ceremony a month earlier to February, boosting Torontoâs appeal as a showcase.
âThat move made Tiff the launching pad for the Oscar race,â Bernard said in a telephone interview.
This yearâs is Torontoâs biggest yet, with 372 films from 72 countries, including 289 feature-length pictures, organizers said. The 10 biggest Oscar contenders, including Paul Thomas Andersonâs âThe Master,â loosely based on Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, will be screened, according to Film.com, an industry website.
Spies, Children
Pictures expected to garner attention this year also include âArgo,â the story of a CIA operatives caught in Iran in 1979, and âMidnightâs Children,â the adaptation of Salman Rushdieâs 1980 novel of lives upended by Indiaâs 1947 partition.
Open Road will use the festival to premiere âEnd of Watch,â a gritty story of two Los Angeles cops featuring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena. The event kicked off last night with FilmDistrictâs âLooper,â a sci-fi thriller filmed partially in China, with Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
âBy tomorrow Iâm moving on to full acquisition mode,â FilmDistrict CEO Peter Schlessel said in an interview yesterday. Schlessel has been coming to Toronto for 15 years and said heâs always amazed by the localsâ film awareness.
The festivalâs success coincides with a resurgence in TV and film production in Toronto and Ontario. The value of projects shot in the province jumped 31 percent to a record C$1.26 billion ($1.28 billion) in 2011, helped by productions including the remake of sci-fi action movie âTotal Recall,â according to the Ontario Media Development Corp.
Local Economy
Tiff generated about $170 million for the local economy in 2009, up from $67 million in 2003, according to a government- backed study. That should hit $200 million this year.
This year, the festival has attracted 4,006 industry delegates, a 5 percent increase from last year, according to the organizers. In 2011, more than 40 films were purchased for distribution.
All those dealmakers create a boon for restaurants, bars and hotels clustered around the TIFF Bell Lightbox, a five-story complex that includes five screens, a gallery and event space. The facility, finished in 2010, is now the festivalâs centerpiece.
âWeâre already serving a third more guests than normal, and once the festival starts weâre going to go from 300 a night to 600,â said Jason Bangerter, executive chef at the Lightboxâs two restaurants.
Hotels in Toronto also enjoy a jump in business during the festival, particularly those closest to the Lightbox.
âWeâve seen a huge spike in our numbers compared with when the festival was centered closer to Yorkville,â said Reetu Gupta, who oversees sales and marketing at the Hilton Garden Inn, around the corner from the Lightbox. âWe have a lot more travelers coming in now just to visit the Lightbox. Itâs become an attraction in itself people want to come see.â
To contact the reporters on this story: Hugo Miller in Toronto at hugomiller@bloomberg.net; Eric Lam in Toronto at elam87@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net; Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net
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