The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has formed an advisory committee to support the launch of its content market in 2026, with screen industry leaders from Canada, the U.S. and France among the first confirmed names.

The seven members announced Friday (Feb. 14) include four Canadians: Rhombus Media founder Niv Fichman, former SODEC president Monique Simard, Indigenous Screen Office (ISO) CEO Kerry Swanson and Elevation Pictures co-founder and co-president Noah Segal.

The group also includes film consultant Jérôme Paillard, a former executive director of the Cannes Film Festival’s Marché du Film; Vincent Maraval, CEO of the Paris-based film sales and production company Goodfellas; and Roeg Sutherland, L.A.-based CAA’s co-head of media finance and co-head of its International Film Group.

TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey tells Playback Daily that the full advisory committee will be around a dozen industry leaders, indicating that the next announcement of names will see stakeholders from different territories.

“We’re very interested in what’s going on across Asia right now in the screen industries,” he says. “Not just the big territories in East Asia, but also Southeast Asia and South Asia. There’s some additional expertise that we want to make sure that we have at the table too.”

Bailey says the advisory committee will support TIFF’s goal of creating a content market in North America that’s tied to a film festival on the level of the European Film Market at the Berlin International Film Festival or Marché du Film in Cannes.

“The plan is to really tap into current knowledge and future thinking in terms of what markets are going to need and not have to reinvent something that we’ve been doing,” he says.

The seven-member group all bring something different to the table, with Bailey highlighting Fichman as “one of the most influential producers in Canada” and Segal as co-head of the top distribution company in the country.

Meanwhile, Simard’s storied history as a producer, screenwriter, funder and politician provides critical insight into the Quebec film sector, and having Swanson and the ISO involved is “foundational” to the market’s support of Indigenous creators, he says.

Including international players “of the calibre” of Paillard, Maraval and Sutherland is equally important. “We have really thought of people … who we know that we can depend on for the most accurate expertise,” says Bailey.

Having the strong baseline of Canadian expertise will also help TIFF ensure the market aligns with the needs of the domestic industry, which Bailey says is a priority. That is due, in part, to the $23 million investment from the federal government to launch the market in 2026.

“We’ve got great writers, directors and producers here and sometimes they just need a door that they can knock on to the global industry,” he says. “Sometimes it’s just navigating the very complex realities of being a modest-sized industry next to a massive one. We’ve been able to build a big bridge between Canada and the U.S. over many years, so we want to help with that too.”

As to whether building political tensions between the U.S. and Canada will impact TIFF or the market, Bailey says the organization is focused on “making sure that we remain collegial and never adversarial.”

“Things that are well out of our control — like what happens in Washington, D.C. and Ottawa or what happens with the Canadian dollar — those are things we respond to as they happen,” he says. “We try to anticipate, build scenarios, but we’re not looking to make any radical changes. It’s really a matter of making sure that the industry that’s depended on us for many years knows that they can continue to depend on us.”

Images courtesy of Toronto International Film Festival. Pictured (L-R): (Top) Niv Fichman, Vincent Maraval, Jérôme Paillard, Noah Segal, (Bottom), Monique Simard, Roeg Sutherland and Kerry Swanson