The term ‘unofficial’ has recurringly been used to characterize the market at the Toronto International Film Festival.

But on the heels of last year’s bidding war between Paramount Classics and Fox Searchlight Pictures over Jason Reitman’s indie comedy Thank You for Smoking – and the promise of further aggressive purchasing this year – there’s no question that big business gets done at TIFF.

‘I cannot deny that this is a market,’ says Giulia Filippelli, head of the TIFF sales and industry office, ‘because wherever business is done, it’s a market.’

But Filippelli maintains that her office is focused on sustaining an informal configuration in which TIFF delegates can conduct business in a friendly, social setting.

‘What we don’t want is to transform the festival into a structured market like Berlin or Cannes, where hotel rooms are turned into offices, and whereby the films that the markets are screening overshadow the official selections,’ she says.

Controversy erupted last year when both Paramount and Fox announced they had secured the rights to Reitman’s film. But it turned out that Paramount’s verbal agreement could not stack up to Fox’s higher-dollar offer that sealed the deal.

‘In the old times the film business was a business… of shaking hands, but obviously times have changed,’ says Filippelli.

Fox eventually paid a TIFF record US$7 million for the rights to the film, pointing to the fact that prospective buyers need deeper pockets for films that hit it off with TIFF audiences. (Dave Chappelle’s Block Party and Trust the Man also reportedly went for nearly US$7 million)

Filippelli says it’s something that happens at most major festivals, with a few films drawing the most buyer attention.

‘Last year the bidding [for Thank You for Smoking] was very harsh because it was a six-figure deal and it involved two major companies from the U.S.,’ she notes. ‘[This year] we have big titles that still have no distributor in North America and throughout the world, so we’re anticipating some bidding around those.’

Films coming to Toronto with North American rights still up for grabs include U.S. titles Penelope with Oscar-winner Reese Witherspoon, El Cantante starring Jennifer Lopez and husband Marc Anthony, and Bonneville with Jessica Lange and Joan Allen.

Peter Lawson, VP of acquisitions for Miramax Films, notes that bidding wars at TIFF are on the rise as the fest’s importance as a place of business grows.

‘[TIFF is] a very competitive arena with companies that have big distribution outlets and deep pockets,’ he says.

Lawson says Miramax is looking to pick up titles for domestic and international distribution in addition to promoting its own titles, including Anthony Minghella’s Breaking and Entering, Venus starring Peter O’Toole and the action-animation Rennaisance. Last year, the company acquired the TIFF People’s Choice and Academy Award-winnerTsotsi at the festival.

‘Toronto has become one of the premier, if not the premier, North American festival for acquiring new and undiscovered films,’ Lawson notes.

Of course it all comes down to quality and value on the dollar.

‘You probably couldn’t have made a good film with a good cast like Thank You for Smoking for the same amount you purchased it as an acquisition,’ Lawson says. Thank You for Smoking has grossed a reported US$25 million in North America.

Jeff Sackman, president and CEO of Toronto’s ThinkFilm, which has five films in this year’s fest, including Canadian features Everything’s Gone Green, Citizen Duane and A Stone’s Throw, says high pickup prices are especially prevalent in years where there are fewer buzz films available.

‘If there are fewer films, people get hungrier,’ he says.

Sackman notes that ThinkFilm is looking to TIFF not only to promote its films but also potentially to invest in new ones.

‘There are a lot of films being shown for the first time – world premieres and North American premieres – that we’ll be looking for very closely,’ he says.

ThinkFilm’s other two features on the TIFF schedule are the drug-addict drama Candy with Heath Ledger, slated for release in October, and the controversial, sexually explicit John Cameron Mitchell drama Shortbus, to be released in November.

Sackman says the timing is great from a marketing perspective.

‘You need the festival environment to create that buzz from audiences and the media,’ he says. ‘We have all the journalists from North America showing up in one spot, so that’s very convenient.’