In just 25 years, the Toronto International Film Festival has become one of the pre-eminent market-driven film festivals in the world.

This year, there are 346 registered international distribution companies, from 28 countries.

‘It functions for me in the second half of the year, the way Cannes functions the first half of the year,’ says Ken Ingles, director of the Edinburgh Filmhouse, who will be making his fifth visit. ‘A lot of the films that I preview in Toronto in September will become a lot of my first-run films for January. The films that appear in Cannes in May give us a fair idea of what we’re going to be showing for the rest of the calendar year.’

Australia’s Mark Gooder, head of the film division for Becker Entertainment (which includes the divisions rep for studio films and Dendy for independents) agrees.

‘Last year in Toronto I bought Human Traffic, which we released at the end of January. It begins the cycle for the major markets,’ he says.

There’s also less pressure in Toronto because it’s not an official market, says Kelley Alexander, director of the Rogers Industry Centre, and not every title in a sales agent’s catalogue is up for sale. ‘They can pick and choose. It’s like going to a large banquet.’

Maybe that’s why there is a record 18 distributors from Japan, including three new companies. One of them is Hong Kong’s prestigious Edko films, an art-house cinema operator and film distributor.

Audrey Lee, Edko’s gm of sales and acquisitions, says, ‘I don’t attend that many festivals. Normally I attend only the film markets.’

Edko focuses on foreign, non-Chinese films (from distributors like Miramax, Icon and Film Four) with good stories, like the recent releases Buena Vista Social Club and Children of Heaven. ‘If it touches the heart of the people, then I believe it can find a market,’ says Lee.

Another new distributor to attend is DreamWorks skg. Andrea McCall, creative executive/acquisitions, has been coming to Toronto for the past three years, but this will be the first year she’s scouted films for DreamWorks to distribute.

‘We’ve just entered into the acquisitions market within the last six months to a year. We normally develop from within and produce our own movies,’ McCall says. ‘I’m interested in finding that little gem that’s tucked away in the schedule. It’s all about good storytelling and how exciting the subject matter is.’

Break-out films

Becker’s Gooder is looking for quality films that have the potential to break out to a wider release. ‘I don’t expect to find something that’s going to go out on every screen in Australia,’ he says. ‘I’m more likely to find stuff that can be platformed, that we can build in the marketplace. These are the kind of films that Toronto delivers – the ‘word-of-mouth’ films.’

Because Australia is an English-speaking territory, Becker looks for North American premieres of English-language films and has also been successful with documentaries like the Academy Award-winning film about the Olympics, One Day in September.

Thierry Decourcelle, head of acquisitions for French distributor Ocean Films (which bought Lunapapa last year) and sister production company Paradis Films, sees Toronto as a critical market for independent movies along with Berlin and Cannes.

‘It’s a good time to make contact with producers and directors,’ he says.

Although Ocean Films has about 20 movies in distribution, Decourcelle says he is looking for more coproductions next year. ‘If we want to find good movies we have to be in the production decision. It’s more important to be a coproducer than just to prebuy.’

Paradis coproduced this year’s Wong Kan’wai gala film In the Mood for Love, and Hijack Stories, the opening film of the Planet Africa lineup.

Alain de la Mata, managing director of u.k. distribution company Blue Light and head of acquisitions for world sales agents Wild Bunch, is looking for new and independent directors and producers. ‘We’re definitely director-driven in the type of film we’re looking for,’ he says.

Toronto is also an opportunity for distributors to concentrate on North American independent films, since 30% to 40% of the lineup is English-speaking films. The rest is an eclectic mix of cinema from different parts of the world.

‘We’re trying to find films that are more intelligent than the average fare,’ says Rupert Preston, managing director of the u.k.’s Metrodome Distribution. These include American independents like Chuck and Buck and small foreign-language films like West Beirut, which Preston saw last year in Toronto.

‘[tiff] is a great place to see a huge mix and range of film…quite a few of which are still available for distribution in the u.k.,’ says Preston.

Metrodome hasn’t bought any Canadian titles at the festival, but it does have the u.k. rights to the upcoming Studio 8 and Europa Pictures coproductions Kevin of the North, starring Leslie Nielsen, and Ignition, with Bill Pullman and Lena Olin.

The Edinburgh Filmhouse (home to the Edinburgh Film Festival) is one of the premiere art houses and front-line exhibitors in the u.k., so Ingles comes to Toronto to screen first-run material, such as last year’s Onegin, which he picked up. He’s also looking for French titles for the film festival Filmhouse runs in November. ‘Toronto is very good for picking up a few titles at the last minute.’

Last year, Ingles got four, including A Considerable Disturbance. ‘This probably is the cinema that would show new Canadian films,’ says Ingles. ‘I fell in love with Kissed, which I saw in my first year in Toronto.’

The Edinburgh Filmhouse has a good relationship with Alliance Atlantis Communications and it also shows a lot of Atom Egoyan films, including the first-run film from last year’s opening gala, Felicia’s Journey.

‘On a personal level, I’m looking for quirky off-beat films. I like films that are a lot more about character and a lot less about plot. In a way, that’s what I think the art house market is more about – food for the mind rather than just food for the stomach. Toronto’s got such a rich menu on offer, that it gets quite frustrating that you’ve got to make tough choices, because you can only see so many movies in 10 days.’ *