How the business of TIFF affects when the rest of Canada can see the films

Amid the sold-out movie premieres and star-studded red carpets, there was another side of the Toronto International Film Festival unfolding in places like the Soho Metropolitan Hotel on Wellington Street.

"Every hotel room has a different sales agent," said Laurie May, co-president of Elevation Pictures and a member of TIFF's board of directors.

Behind the scenes, distributors and studios met with sales agents and filmmakers. These meetings, as well as buzz from the festival can determine when, how, and sometimes if a film can one day be seen by a wider audience.

While high profile studio films like The Fablemans, The Woman King, and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery should all have fairly conventional releases in the coming weeks and months, what happens to some of the other more than 200 films in TIFF's lineup now that the festival is over?

Some films may never find a wider audience, but others found deals to land on the big screen — although in many cases where, when, and for how long are still up in the air.

It isn't just cinephiles in the audience at TIFF. Even at showings open to the public, deals could be percolating. 

"Distributors will go to a public screening of the film," said Geoff MacNaughton, senior director of industry and theatrical programming at TIFF. "[They] will leave that screening, all get in their little huddles and talk about if it's something that they really want to bid on and chase."

Some films screen exclusively for buyers and industry professionals, like Door Mouse, a Canadian thriller about a comic book writer working in a nightclub who investigates the disappearances of a number of young women.

"These kinds of screenings, [they're] fun because it just makes sure that everybody's paying attention," said Todd Olsson, president of Highland Film Group, who are selling Door Mouse.

MacNaughton says in the past there were more completed films looking for buyers at the festival. 

"Now, I think what the industry is doing more and more is buying content that is at an earlier stage of completion, kind of like a project package or script stage," he said. 

In addition to the films on screen, TIFF provides an opportunity for the industry to meet and broker deals for projects that haven't been made yet. One example of that phenomenon at this year's festival is Dumb Money, May said, a yet-to-be-shot film about the GameStop stock saga that will star Seth Rogen, Paul Dano, and Pete Davidson.

According to May, Elevation's investor and partner Black Bear Pictures had plans to be at the Soho selling the international rights to the film to various distributors.

She compares independent film financing to building a condominium.