As the Toronto International Film Festival winds down, the Rogers Industry Centre is already looking ahead to next year’s prospects. Targeting presale opportunities will be the big push in ’98.

This year saw the addition of a series of four informal dinners orchestrated between Canadian and international producers, not necessarily with films in the festival. The gatherings offered a casual atmosphere where producers could discuss upcoming projects and areas of similar interest, potentially providing the basis for future partnerships.

Hosting the dinners were British Screen’s Simon Perry, Alliance Independent Films’ Charlotte Mickie, tvontario’s Rudy Buttignol and Wendy Braitman, director of the International Film Finance Conference.

During the festival frenzy filmmakers rarely have time to sit down and casually introduce themselves to each other and compare upcoming production slates. Feedback from participants indicates this was the main attraction of the initiative, says the Rogers Industry Centre’s Debbie Nightingale, adding it was a great way to welcome new filmmakers to the festival.

‘There was no real agenda, producers could just meet each other and chat, get a sense of who was out there on the international scene, what they were up to, and just see what happens,’ says Nightingale. She plans to stage the dinners again next year, but will keep them on a small scale, 12 producers per dinner, for a relaxed atmosphere.

Other initiatives to bolster presale activity at the next festival are being developed. ‘Putting together the next project is an important part of the festival and we have to look at ways to facilitate that,’ she says.

Also new in ’97, the Ultra Indie Experience, programmed by the Canadian Film Centre, drew packed audiences. Drawing on the experiences of first-time filmmakers from around the world, the series of discussions provided insight into the who, what and where of putting together the creative and financing components of debut films.

‘Moviemaking isn’t a science, so everyone loves to hear anecdotes describing the ways filmmakers put their pictures together,’ says Nightingale. Maintaining creative vision amidst the increasingly complex financial arrangements was a key issue cropping up at conference sessions and was a concern addressed by the indie workshops, she says.

Out of sight, out of mind is the best adage to describe the Screenplay Cafe, situated outside the main traffic area of the Rogers Industry Centre in the Postcards Lounge. The fact that the schedule for the chat sessions with screenwriters was not posted anywhere in the Centre exacerbated the lack of attention given the new initiative. Nightingale says she will work to find a more central spot for the screenplay workshop next year.

Relegated outside the main festival zone, this was the dilemma the Rogers Industry Centre faced in ’96, but there was no doubt it was the hub of activity this year. Nightingale says efforts to make the venue more loungey (extra chairs and tables, the snack bar) were worth the effort. ‘It was definitely festival central this year,’ she says.

The micro-meetings were sold out far in advance of the festival, a situation Nightingale plans to remedy next year by programming another 10 meetings. Lack of space is the crux of the problem, she says.

As for the overflow situation at the Symposium conference rooms, Nightingale says there were enough seats to accommodate the number of registrants eligible to attend, but the problem arose when delegates chose the same concurrent sessions the first morning, evidence of the success of the Alternative Film Financing and the Show Me The Money panels.

She says the afternoon workshops and day two of the Symposium were able to accommodate all participants. But to ensure the problem doesn’t happen again, Nightingale is toying with the idea of having people sign up in advance for Symposium workshops.