US buyers continue to circle acquisition titles in a Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) line-up that, well into the event’s second half, has delivered a low deal count.
Thursday will bring the one-week stage of TIFF and with most buyers likely to have returned to Los Angeles or New York, the headline news remains Focus Features’ pursuit of Curry Barker’s Midnight Madness horror Obsession, on which the studio remains locked in exclusive negotiations for most of the world.
Nascent buyer Row K paid seven figures for North American rights to Gus Van Sant’s Dead Man’s Wire, which received its North American premiere in TIFF after debuting in Venice; and Black Bear’s fledgling US distribution division opted to self-distribute the Sydney Sweeney boxing biopic Christy, a film it financed, produced, and sells internationally.
As such, neither of two well-capitalised new players have thus far made the kind of statement buys that attendees had hoped would if not end then at least mitigate a highly cautious post-Covid mindset among US buyers.
Sources attribute part of the on-site torpor to a TIFF selection lacking in must-have acquisition titles. Others point out a lack of urgency cultivated by year-round buying activity, often during periods that are not scrutinised as closely as major industry events; and the ongoing post-Covid reality that transactions take longer to close as distributors figure out how to sparkle in a competitive North American release calendar, and pay-1 buyers are lowballing offers to theatrical counterparts.
In addition, buyers like Neon, Focus Features, A24, Sony Pictures Classics, Bleecker Street, and Independent Film Company arrived in Toronto with fairly packed line-ups – awards season or otherwise – are were under no mandate to acquire (although that has not stopped Focus trying to add Obsession to its line-up).
It seems a matter of time before Mona Fastvold’s much-fancied Venice premiere The Testament Of Ann Lee, which got its North American debut in TIFF, will find a home. Similarly, Screen understands that Kent Jones’s Venice Horizons premiere Late Fame starring Willem Dafoe – which screened in the market in TIFF but not in official selection – may be nearing a deal.
Also drawing interest are the TIFF world premieres of Steven Soderbergh’s The Christophers, Alice Winocour’s Couture starring Angelina Jolie, Ben Wheatley’s Normal, Adam Carter Rehmeier’s Carolina Caroline, Bobby Farrelly’s Driver’s Ed, David Mackenzie’s Fuze, and Poetic License and California Schemin’ from directorial debutants Maude Apatow and James McAvoy are well-liked.
Potsy Ponciroli’s revenge tale Motor City, which premiered in Vencie Spotlight, has also captured the eye of buyers, as have Romain Gavras’s satirical thriller Sacrifice, and Clement Virgo’s psychological thriller Steal Away.
Sources said they would not be surprised if more sales get announced in the coming days, although the timeline is more likely to be weeks, or in the case of potential 2026 releases, months.
Speaking on a TIFF Buyers In Focus panel earlier in the festival, Dylan Leiner of Sony Pictures Classics lamented the trade press’s focus on transactions at festivals and markets, noting that acquisitions is a year-round business.
Sony Pictures Classics increasingly invests in films and pre-buys. The company has been occupied with a TIFF slate of eight films – many of them potential awards contenders like Rebecca Zlotowski’s A Private Life, Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon, and James Vanderbilt’s Nuremberg.