Has TIFF Got Its Groove Back?

Has TIFF Got Its Groove Back?

For much of the past decade, the Toronto International Film Festival has struggled to hold its ground in the global awards-season sweepstakes. Once the launchpad for Oscar juggernauts from Slumdog Millionaire to La La Land, TIFF has in recent years watched rivals Venice and Telluride siphon away its prestige premieres, while buyers grumbled about thinner slates and softer deal flow. But this year’s edition, which wrapped Sunday with Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet taking the coveted People’s Choice Award, offered signs that Toronto may be getting its mojo back.

Hamnet, Zhao’s sumptuous adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s bestselling novel, had already wowed critics in Telluride, but its Toronto audience win — the same prize that once vaulted Nomadland to Oscar glory — instantly made the Amblin-backed drama a frontrunner in the awards conversation. Jessie Buckley’s performance as Shakespeare’s wife Agnes drew raves, while co-star Paul Mescal’s turn as the Bard added star wattage. In recent years, the TIFF audience award had lost some of its predictive power — Mike Flanagan’s The Life of Chuck, last year’s winner, fizzled on the campaign trail — but Zhao’s victory suggests the prize could once again be a bellwether for the season ahead.

The audience vote also sent a strong signal for big-ticket genre and franchise fare. Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, another big awards contender (that was shot largely in Toronto), came in second. The international audience award went to Park Chan-wook’s economic thriller No Other Choice, which despite losing out in Venice remains a potential Oscar play, and Joachim Trier’s Cannes champ Sentimental Value, considered one of the non-English-language frontrunners of this year’s award season.

If the audience awards showed TIFF still knows how to pick a crowd-pleaser, the market sent an even clearer message that the festival can still deliver commercial fireworks. The biggest deal of the week was Focus Features’ $15 million swoop for Obsession, a shoestring-budget Midnight Madness horror debut that sparked a late-night bidding war with Focus beating out A24 and Neon. Insiders say the final number could go higher once global rights are factored in. The sum dwarfs most acquisitions this year — and marks TIFF’s first eight-figure deal in several editions — underlining the resilience of genre cinema at a time when studios and streamers alike are cautious.

Beyond Obsession, however, the sales action was muted. Unlike in TIFF’s glory days, when Netflix and Amazon sprayed nine-figure checks across King Street, the deep-pocketed streamers sat largely on the sidelines. “Distributors are still buying, but the bar is higher than ever,” one veteran sales agent noted. Rising costs, shrinking margins, and uncertain downstream revenues mean buyers want not just artistry but clear commercial paths — awards buzz, international pre-sales, or genre hooks — that guarantee theatrical draw.

That market malaise raises questions about TIFF’s bigger gamble: the launch of an official content market next year. For decades, Toronto has thrived on an informal bazaar of hotel-suite dealmaking, with a focus on finished films without domestic distribution. In 2026, the festival plans to centralize the action with “TIFF: The Market,” a $16 million Canadian government–backed initiative designed as a one-stop shop for film, TV, and even gaming.

The move could position Toronto alongside Cannes’ Marché or the American Film Market as an industry must-attend — buyers in Asian and Latin America are particularly keen — or it could flop. Some insiders worry Toronto’s timing is off. TIFF’s September dates, they fear, are far too close to Cannes to allow producers to set up big pre-buy packages, and, with the industry still retrenching post-COVID, another market is the last thing most buyers and sales companies want or can afford.

Still, for 2025 at least, Toronto looked healthier than it has in years. The premieres packed theaters, the stars turned out, and crucially, the festival delivered both a headline deal and genuine awards buzz. That combination has always been TIFF’s sweet spot. As one distributor put it: “Toronto isn’t back to its old self yet. But this year, it felt alive again.”