What can TIFF do to attract back French – and European – industry?

This year, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) will screen some 50 French productions and co-productions, but rising costs, fewer world premieres and lower demand are keeping many French buyers and sellers from making the transatlantic journey.

“It’s just too expensive,” said one French sales agent.

Florencia Gil, head of international sales at Urban Sales, said that “on-the-ground business at TIFF has declined significantly over the last five years” – a factor she attributed to “low buyer turnout and a less attractive commercial offer” because most titles coming out of France have already premiered in Cannes or Venice. Without that first exposure, these titles have “a very weak press reputation,” she explained, adding: “It’s become an overvalued market for European directors.”

While the festival’s vast selection of films is a huge draw for audiences, a sales executive at another French company, who preferred to remain anonymous, said, “There are too many films, so the films in the sidebars that are not the main American packages tend to slip through the cracks and don’t interest buyers or the media.”

Jean Labadie, founder and president of the French company Le Pacte, which distributes TIFF titles Emilia Perez, Anora AND Meet the Barbarians and is taking part this year, also cited “too many films” in Toronto. As a result, “gradually other distributors stopped going there.”

Another leading French sales agent confirmed the lack of deal opportunities: “There are fewer and fewer buyers, and those who are there are more focused on viewings and less on meetings and closing deals.”

TIFF’s timing is also complicated, overlapping with Venice, just before September’s San Sebastian International Film Festival (SSIFF) and the mid-October Rome Film Festival and the parallel MIA Market, and close enough to the American Film Market in early November. “(It) forces all of us to make a choice,” said a third vendor.

“Europeans are staying in Europe,” added a fourth sales agent, who said most of the French industry had opted to stay close to home in Venice before heading to San Sebastian. The Spanish festival was praised by a third vendor for “really looking after buyers and sellers,” with invitations and some costs covered by the festival.

Getting them back

Anita Lee, TIFF Programming Director, said: Screen: “We are not under a rock. We are very aware of the concerns of the industry, and the decision to launch an official marketplace is a response to that, that we have listened and heard and have begun to address and overcome many of those challenges.”

San Sebastian remains clear that its ambition is not to be a marketplace, and AFM has no parallel festival platform. TIFF organizers are therefore hoping to lure French and other European industries overseas on a one-stop journey as they prepare to launch an official content marketplace in 2026. Billed as a central hub for buying and selling features, series, IP, and immersive and innovative projects, it is being backed by a three-year investment of C$23 million ($16.9 million) from the Canadian federal government.

Lee said keeping costs down for overseas attendees is “a priority for us” and TIFF is already working to make the event worth the long journey.

“The cost of attendance will be more valuable. It will mean not only coming to Toronto to release a film in an official selection, but also coming to do business with the full slate of films – buying, selling and packaging,” Lee explained.

Although TIFF has been an “unofficial marketplace for decades,” she said the 2026 event will provide a framework that “makes it easier and more efficient for international companies to connect, meet buyers and network while they’re here.”

A phased transition to the new model has already begun, with an expanded co-production forum, a works-in-progress exhibition, a project financing framework and other services that will facilitate business operations, as well as promote films for sale and seek financing during the packaging phase.

Organizers are also working on a more coherent hotel strategy for market delegates. Beyond the direct market, other festival initiatives include national spotlights and programming that extends well beyond film, from a beefed-up Primetime lineup to a focus on IP.

The expanded programme of panels and lectures will allow the festival and sponsors to provide more free invitations to international executives, further covering expenses.

Meanwhile, a fourth anonymous sales agent said Toronto is “still a significant market for sales in North America. Without a TIFF premiere, it’s difficult to sell in the US.” They described the new market plans as “ambitious” and a “good move,” adding that most French sales agents have said Screen:”We will go if there are buyers and the market can focus on selected films.”

Vendors are calling on festival organizers to focus specifically on buyers from Europe and Asia to balance the already strong presence of buyers from the U.S. and Canada.

Unifrance is back

French film promotion organization Unifrance will not have a booth at this year’s TIFF for the first time in more than a decade (due to the pandemic-induced hiatus), as French sales agents preferred to relocate to different parts of the city.

Unifrance, however, plans to participate in the 2026 fair and increase its budget accordingly, said executive director Daniela Elstner.. “It is a festival that constantly reflects on itself and asks questions, and it is also an important market that has the potential to become one again for a very long time.”

The number of Unifrance sales agents participating in the festival has fallen from around 20 companies in 2019 before the pandemic to 16 in 2022 and just nine last year.

French retail companies visiting Toronto this year include Charades, The Bureau, Be For Film, mk2 Films, Pyramide International, WTFilms, Indie Sales, Totem Films, Other Angle and Films Boutique. However, major companies including Gaumont, SND and Pathé have decided not to participate this year.

As for the festival, Lee and programming director Robyn Citizen continue to work to increase the number of French titles in the official selection, spending a week in Paris every May after Cannes, “sitting in the Unifrance cinema and watching all the French films… France and French films have been and will always be central to TIFF,” Lee said.

This year’s tally of 50 French productions or co-productions compares with 44 last year and 47 in 2022 – down from the pre-COVID-19 years of 2018 and 2019, when 67 and 57 titles were programmed, respectively.

This year’s French world premieres at TIFF include several debut films: Laura Piani’s romantic comedy Jane Austen ruined my life which Sony Pictures Classics has acquired for North America and multiple territories; Koya Kamura, set in South Korea Winter in Sokcho; Belgian-French co-production by Guillaume Senez Missing part; and Thibault Emin’s Body Horror Otherwise.

Sophie Deraspe will also have the world premiere of her Canadian-French co-production Shepherds and Julie Delpy came to town for the international premiere of her immigration comedy Meet the Barbarians. The tribute award was presented Emilia Perez‘S French songwriter-composer duo Camille Dalmais and Clément Ducol.

The festival said it doesn’t plan to reduce its selection in response to complaints not only from French sellers but many European sellers about the poor visibility of smaller arthouse films. But it is moving toward streamlining the section, Lee said, including “an increasingly and deliberately elevated selection of Platforms.”

While the stars at TIFF attract the attention of mainstream media, Lee said, “The truth is that more than 70% of the program at TIFF is international, and the percentage of French films is always high. Our challenge is to make them stand out and get more press to cover them.”