Film distribution deals are getting done at TIFF, but at lower prices as a tough market means buyers are lingering over available titles, and not pouncing on prestige films like they did in better times.

U.S. buyers on Tuesday were circling Atom Egoyan’s Chloe after its debut on Sunday evening.

‘I’m confident the film will get released. It’s a question of scale,’ Egoyan told the Chloe presser Monday afternoon, strongly hinting at action round the Julianne Moore and Liam Neeson-starrer.

The Weinstein Company picked up the U.S. and German rights to Tom Ford’s A Single Man on Tuesday, the day after its premiere. The price tag is around $1.5 million, with CAA and IM Global closing the deal.

Also, IFC has acquired the U.S. rights to Danish director Nicholas Winding Refn’s Viking action-adventure pic Valhalla Rising.

Alliance Films, meanwhile, unveiled a new output deal with U.S. distributor Apparition, newly opened by indie veteran Bob Berney and producer Bill Pohlad. The first title from that pipeline is Jean-Marc Vallée’s The Young Victoria, which is to close TIFF on Saturday ahead of a Canadian theatrical release on Nov. 13.

Other market action in Toronto includes Joker Films selling Rob Stefaniuk’s vampire pic Suck to Universal Pictures International Entertainment for the U.K., France, Benelux, Scandinavia, Australia and New Zealand markets. That comes on top of Alliance picking up the Canadian pic ahead of TIFF.

Elsewhere, Montreal-based genre film distributor Evokative Films acquired the Canadian rights to Danish director Ole Bornedal’s social thriller Deliver Us from Evil from Bavaria Film International ahead of its world premiere in Toronto on Wednesday.

Films that scored awards in Venice before shifting to Toronto are also generating market buzz. These include A Single Man, which earned Colin Firth an acting prize on the Lido.

Reps from all the major U.S. distributors, including Focus Features, Miramax Pictures and Sony Pictures Classics, were in the house for the Monday night premiere.

The after party included much Blackberry and cell phone action as the first buyer interest was fielded by the film’s producers.

Other heat-seekers in Toronto include Israeli director Samuel Maoz’s war pic Lebanon, which earned the Golden Lion award in Venice, the Robert Duvall-starrer Get Low, and Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air, which rode a wave of critical acclaim out of Telluride to Toronto.

But the lack of big-ticket deals by midway through the Toronto film market is not welcome news for the 100 or so indie titles, many with A-list directors and actors attached, that await North American deals.

Last year’s bidding war for The Wrestler in Toronto, which eventually went to Fox Searchlight, is a distant memory for nail-biting sales agents and producers outside TIFF venues looking for film buyers to file in.

The consensus is that film prices will drop as bigger players step away from the bidding as the festival continues this week and smaller specialty distributors wait until after TIFF wraps to offer their own bids.

Film financing in Toronto is proving equally tough in a down year at TIFF.

‘Buyers are lingering this year. It’s definitely a buyer’s market,’ said Damon D’Oliveira, a partner in Toronto-based Conquering Lion Pictures, as he attempts to finance two projects — the $8 million hip-hop drama Enter the Cipher, and a screen adaptation of the Canadian novel The Book of Negroes, both to be directed by Clement Virgo.

‘Everything is changing,’ said Judy Holm, co-president of Markham Street Films, of an indie film sector upended by the economic downturn. Holm is shopping a $15 million feature, The Return of the Fabulous 7.

‘I think most people are feeling there’s no middle ground,’ she added, pointing to a need to either finance and make low-budget films in the $2 million to $3 million range, or go higher than $10 million to attach A-list talent.

Even here, filmmakers caution, with a glut of indie pics with A-list stars vying for distribution deals at TIFF, it’s tough sledding all round.