The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) have responded to a petition signed by more than 200 filmmakers asking for the two organizations to cease their partnership.

The petition, launched last week ahead of TIFF’s Sept. 7 start date, argues that RBC’s financial history with the oil and gas industry makes it “an unfortunate sponsor for the Canadian film industry’s premier event.” Petition signatories as of press time include actors Mark Ruffalo, Ed Norton and Joaquin Phoenix, as well as Canadian filmmakers John Greyson, Vincenzo Natali and Jeremy LaLonde.

“We appreciate this being brought to our attention by members of our filmmaking community,” said Judy Lung, VP, public relations and communications at TIFF, in a statement. “We are committed to environmental sustainability and recognize the importance of addressing climate change quickly and collaboratively. We are in active discussions with RBC and welcome their openness to engaging in dialogue as a first step.”

RBC issued its own statement on the petition, noting that the bank appreciates “the concern for our climate expressed by members of the film community and would welcome the chance for dialogue.”

The bank has been a sponsor of TIFF for 16 years, and is listed as one of three “major sponsors” of the festival alongside Visa and Bulgari.

“As a long-standing supporter of the arts and film community, RBC is proud to be the official bank partner of TIFF. When it comes to climate change, we strongly believe that more action and at a faster pace is needed to address it. We are actively engaging with our clients and partners to identify opportunities to do more in delivering on shared objectives,” read the statement.

RBC was listed as the No. 1 global financier of the fossil fuel industry in 2022, according to the 2023 Banking on Climate Chaos report, which tracks the volume of lending and underwriting provided by 60 of the world’s largest banks to fossil fuel companies. The bank provided more than $40 billion in 2022, and more than $252 billion since 2016, the year the Paris Agreement was signed.

Montreal-based filmmaker Elza Kephart, one of the petition organizers, tells Playback Daily that the goal is not to “attack” TIFF, but to try to begin the process of separating the film industry from organizations that support the oil and gas sector.

RBC’s involvement with Canadian film and TV expands beyond TIFF, thanks in part to the RBC Emerging Artists initiative launched in 2007. The initiative covers a wide range of sectors, including film, literature, visual arts, theatre, music and dance. Its publicly listed partners in Canada include the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, the National Screen Institute and Telefilm Canada.

Kephart says the petition organizers decided to highlight RBC’s partnership with TIFF because it “is not just a Canadian institution, it’s a world cinema institution. Everyone who’s in the film industry knows about TIFF.”

The filmmaker says the petition is also an opportunity to raise awareness to the indie production sector about the role banks play in the fossil fuel industry, and encourage the industry to look at working with smaller banks with less of an environmental impact.

“I do think it’s time for all of us to really look at how we do business,” says Kephart. “There’s talk about making productions greener. Well, one of the ways to make productions greener is to really think about who you bank with, because who you bank with directly affects the climate crisis.”

The petition is the latest incident in a period of turbulence for TIFF, in addition to the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes impacting the overall screen industry. The festival’s COO Beth Janson departed last month, and, around the same time, it confirmed that its 28-year partnership with Bell will be coming to a close at the end of the year.

Photo by Connie Tsang