During the Toronto International Film Festival, Playback will feature a series of Q&As with festival programmers and insiders on trends in the films they program and the buzz they’re hearing from distributors.

Kicking off the series today is Justin Cutler, senior manager of sales and industry office at TIFF. Here he shares his insight into this festival’s buyer activity, noting that there’s a larger attendance by both sales and buying contingents from Asian and South American territories, and teams representing digital distributors and aggregators.

Can you summarize what are you hearing from buyers who will be attending the festival this year? How does that reflect on the state of the industry? Is it a good year? A bad year?

It’s shaping up to be a great festival this year.  With 147 world premieres and an increase in sales titles over last year, the excitement buyers have expressed about our program is palpable.  We have noticed that acquisition teams are increasing their [workforce] numbers to cover the available content at this year’s festival.  Sales titles like Into the Wonder, Ginger and Rosa, What Maisie Knew, State 194, Free Angela & All Political Prisoners, Leviathan, and Midnight’s Children are major drivers for buyers to the festival. 

Are you seeing a greater attendance from any territories in particular?  Why do you think that is?

To date, the number of registered industry professionals is 5% higher than last year – a big success for us.  The sales and industry office is on track to register a total of 4,200 industry professionals, including 1,600 buyers.  A surge of buyers and sales agents from Japan, India, Korea, India and South American territories has made this increase possible.

Buyers worldwide have gravitated towards the festival for the array of screening opportunities we offer.  With 372 curated films, 147 world premieres and 1,214 screenings, buyers have an incredible amount to choose from.  Buyers particularly enjoy the opportunity to view films with Toronto’s avid film-going audiences.  This access helps them make more informed decisions on their purchases.

Are buyers/distributors looking at particular niches as areas in which they’re looking to expand their content? In a nutshell, what are they looking for?

Buyers are diversifying their acquisition strategies to accommodate for niche programming.  The proliferation of new viewing platforms, i.e., specialty channels, VOD and digital distribution, has enabled exhibitors to discover new audiences, who are demanding more content.  As a result, new sales opportunities are expanding at incredible rates.

In particular, genre and documentary content has attracted buyer’s interest over past two years. Our Midnight Madness and TIFF Docs programs are excellent platforms for this content. Last year’s screening of The Day, our first sale of 2011, actually had a scrum of buyers waiting outside of the screening at 2:00 AM.  You don’t see that very often at festival these days.

What are some of the changes you’re seeing this year in terms of the buyers that are attending the festival?

Acquisition companies are maximizing their coverage of festival content by sending more of their colleagues to TIFF.  We are also seeing the emergence of new distribution companies focused on niche and lifestyle content; ESPN, Nike and CNN are all sending buying teams to the festival this year.

 Are there a greater number of, for example, digital distributors attending? Why do you think that is, and what opportunities does this create for filmmakers?

We have noticed an emergence of digital distributors, aggregators and specialty channels attending the festival annually. Companies such as Hulu, ITunes, Netflix are all sending larger teams to the festival this year.