Xavier Dolan’s Mommy is the lone homegrown title that Toronto earlier identified as a “Toronto” premiere and on Thursday was revealed to be headed to TIFF via Telluride.
The Cannes grand jury prize co-winner will screen in Telluride during the Labour Day weekend, as will Quebec director Jean-Marc Vallee’s Wild, a Fox Searchlight release that stars Reese Witherspoon and will also screen afterwards in Toronto.
High-profile pressure from a Toronto festival seeking restored exclusivity has stopped other Canadian films from taking a traditional route from Telluride to TIFF to drum up awards season and box office buzz.
Toronto said it will not screen films that appear at other North American film festival during its first four days.
The result has been a host of Telluride titles pushed to the back-end of TIFF, unlike in previous years where they could enjoy star-billing at the front-end after “special screenings” in Telluride.
The slimmed-down Canadian contingent at Telluride includes the husband-and-wife team of Guy Maddin and Kim Morgan attending as guest directors, where each will choose three films to screen during the festival.