TORONTO – The 50th anniversary edition of the Toronto International Film Festival closed last week with the familiar mix of celebration, introspection, and quiet industry anxiety.
From September 4 to 14, more than 200 films from across the world screened in packed cinemas, reaffirming TIFF’s enduring appeal as one of the most audience-driven festivals on the global circuit. Yet beneath the surface buzz, this milestone edition revealed a festival in transition, reassessing its place amid changing power dynamics in the international film ecosystem.
For years, TIFF built its reputation as a launchpad for awards season contenders, a place where films could debut to rapturous public response and emerge as Oscar frontrunners. This year, however, that role felt more complicated. None of the most coveted prestige titles chose Toronto for their world premieres, reflecting an ongoing shift toward Venice, Telluride, New York, and, increasingly, Cannes as the preferred starting points for awards hopefuls.
Toronto still hosted a slate of high-profile world premieres, including Nia DaCosta’s Hedda, Searchlight’s Rental Family, Apple’s The Lost Bus, Paramount’s Roofman, and David Michôd’s Christy. While these films attracted interest and solid audiences, none generated the kind of immediate breakout momentum that once defined a TIFF debut. Rian Johnson’s Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery proved a reliable crowd-pleaser, but it arrived more as entertainment than as a critical lightning rod.
In contrast, the films that truly electrified audiences had already premiered elsewhere. Titles such as Hamnet, Frankenstein, Sentimental Value, The Secret Agent, It Was Just An Accident, and The Voice Of Hind Rajab arrived in Toronto with festival pedigrees from Venice, Telluride, and Cannes, where early acclaim had already propelled them into awards conversations. TIFF’s strength, once again, lay not in discovery but in amplification. As a public-facing festival with deeply engaged cinephile audiences, it offered distributors and awards strategists something invaluable: a real-time temperature check.
That function was reinforced by the continued relevance of the People’s Choice Award, long considered one of the most reliable indicators of awards season success. This year’s winner, Hamnet, confirmed that reputation. After making waves at Telluride, where Jessie Buckley’s performance instantly elevated her into awards contention, the film’s sold-out Toronto screenings broadened the conversation to its overall prospects. History is firmly on its side. Over the past 15 years, nearly every People’s Choice winner has gone on to secure a best picture Oscar nomination, with several ultimately winning the top prize.
If audience enthusiasm remained strong, the same could not be said for the US acquisitions market. Toronto unfolded against a backdrop of caution, shaped by streaming platforms lowering pay-TV fees and theatrical buyers struggling to justify hefty minimum guarantees. Many acquisition executives arrived with already-full slates, while others adopted a wait-and-see approach. Deal-making was sparse, and by the festival’s end only a handful of meaningful theatrical acquisitions had closed.
One notable exception came from newcomer Row K, which made a statement by acquiring North American rights to Dead Mans’ Wire and later picking up US rights to Charlie Harper. Focus Features also generated headlines with its pursuit of the Midnight Madness breakout Obsession. Yet overall, the thin deal flow underscored a broader hesitation that now defines the US independent market.
TIFF’s anniversary edition was not without controversy. Politics, now a near-constant presence at major festivals, took centre stage with protests surrounding the documentary The Road Between Us. Initially withdrawn by TIFF over unspecified legal concerns, the film’s removal sparked backlash from multiple sides before it was reinstated. The episode exposed the delicate balancing act facing festival leadership, caught between internal dissent, external political pressure, and the expectation that TIFF remain a forum for difficult conversations.
Looking ahead, the festival is preparing for perhaps its most ambitious evolution yet. In 2026, TIFF plans to formally launch its own market, expanding beyond traditional film sales to include television, immersive media, AI, and co-productions. Backed by substantial federal funding, the initiative represents a bold attempt to reposition Toronto as not just a showcase, but a hub for industry deal-making. Details remain closely guarded, and scepticism persists among sellers accustomed to doing business without formal market structures. Still, the scale of investment makes clear that TIFF is betting heavily on this next chapter.
At 50, TIFF remains beloved by audiences and essential to the global festival calendar. But this anniversary edition made one thing clear: its future lies not in reclaiming past glories, but in redefining its purpose in a rapidly evolving industry. Whether as an awards amplifier, a cultural battleground, or a newly minted market player, TIFF is once again asking what it wants to be, and what the film world still needs from it.
