Film executives and producers invariably describe Toronto as the premiere festival ahead of the autumn and winter film season, when movies geared to an adult audience are released with an eye to the Oscars. Yet while the lobby of Toronto's Sutton Place Hotel, the centre of industry activity, hummed with film buyers and sellers, the kind of seven-figure deals which capture headlines were rare this year.
The Weinstein Company's purchase of fashion designer Tom Ford's film A Single Man was the main deal at more than $1-million (U.S.), harkening back to a time a few years ago, when this kind of bidding was more common.
"The last thing we want is an auction," one film-industry type could be heard saying disconsolately into his cellphone in a cinema lobby. None of the other industry people waiting in the lineup reacted, perhaps inured to the new way of doing business.
"The times of bidding wars is not even [a trait from]last year, it's a few years ago. It's over," said Stefan Wirthensohn, who heads the festival's sales and industry office. "We saw one for A Single Man. But at the same time, I'm still on the same upbeat note that a lot of the films in our selection found distribution. They might not have made news like A Single Man, but a lot have already found U.S. distribution. And [there are]more to come."
The Weinstein Co.'s acquisition was largely seen as a gamble in this current, cautious climate. Still, the film won wide praise both at the Toronto and Venice festivals in its depiction of a man whose lover is suddenly killed as well as earning Colin Firth a best-actor award in Venice. Simply the fact that it's Ford's directorial debut ensures a substantial amount of media attention.
"The quick money for million-dollar acquisitions ... happened only rarely in previous years," Wirthensohn said. Last year, The Wrestler was a major acquisition for Fox Searchlight at around $4-million, while The Hurt Locker was bought for more than $1-million. Meanwhile, a deal for Slumdog Millionaire was in the works coming into TIFF, Wirthensohn added. However, a major Canadian success was Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group reportedly entering final negotiations to acquire the worldwide distribution rights for Canadian director Peter Stebbings's Defendor, which is a take-off of superhero films and stars Woody Harrelson. In Canada, the film is being distributed by Alliance Films.
In addition, IFC acquired U.S. rights for the Viking adventure Valhalla Rising while, among various other deals, Universal Pictures International Entertainment purchased various territorial rights outside of North America for Canadian actor-director Rob Stefaniuk's vampire film Suck. Alliance is distributing Suck in Canada.
The backbone of the business at the festival is the numerous international deals. "The real superstars" are smaller international films that are closing deals for more than 10 countries, Wirthensohn said. These include films such as the Austrian-French-German co-productions Lourdes and Women Without Men. "Basically, the comment from the [sales agent]of Lourdes was, 'We sold everything.' "" Wirthensohn said.
But the model of independent films coming to festivals hoping to be snatched up by distributors is increasingly looking outdated. "The climate has cooled off significantly over the past years," said Steven C. Beer, the New York entertainment lawyer with the firm Greenberg Traurig who, typical of many in the industry, came to the festival to do business even though he didn't represent a film at TIFF this year. "It's changing in a very significant way in terms of using the festivals as a market."
Buyers continue to depend on TIFF to screen a variety of films, but "the process has become elongated," he said. Instead of jumping on films they want to bid on, buyers are now more content to wait.
"Distributors have found that they don't need to act so quickly. They don't want to submit to a bidding war.... They don't have to. The leverage is so much in their favour that they can be much more selective. They are releasing fewer films. The pressure to perform theatrically is significant because of the money required to market these films."