TORONTO — Executives with the Toronto International Film Festival boasted Wednesday that their inaugural marketplace would serve as a launchpad for Canadian directors and producers to make global connections.

CEO Cameron Bailey made the remarks at an event celebrating the festival’s lineup of Canadian films, which also served as an unofficial introduction for TIFF: The Market, where filmmakers can shop around their projects and make deals with financiers and distributors.

“Without the business of screen storytelling — the deals, the financing, bringing the creative people together with the money — none of this happens,” Bailey said, on stage at the TIFF Lightbox.

“Filmmakers don’t get to make their next works. Talent doesn’t get developed. Projects don’t get developed. Canadian stories don’t get to see the light of day. So we are very proud to be opening the biggest storefront the world has ever seen for Canadian storytelling.”

Bailey called the market, which is backed by $23 million in federal funding, TIFF’s “biggest new thing” since the festival opened the Lightbox, its King Street headquarters, 16 years ago.

Ryan Bobkin, a Toronto-based film producer whose credits include last year’s breakout feature “Blue Heron,” is participating in TIFF: The Market’s international financing and project market, an accelerator for filmmakers to find co-producers and international collaborators for specific projects.

“I think it’s going to result in just fostering more connections and relationships with sales agents and producers and financiers and filmmakers,” he said.

“It’s just a formalization of what TIFF already is … the festival of festivals. It’s a meeting point for people to come to Toronto and to continue pushing their great work forward in whatever stage it’s in.”

Bailey agreed.

“There was business already done, but we knew that there was an appetite for more,” he said on the red carpet after the event. “What we’re going to see this year with the launch of an official market is just a lot more opportunities for businesspeople to meet each other, for deals to be done, for creators to find investment, for investors to find creators.

“All that kind of stuff is just going to be on a much bigger scale.”

Charles Tremblay, TIFF’s head of market, said they’re on track to welcome 6,000 delegates from more than 80 countries, with 230 exhibitors.

He called the market a “bold new initiative that will create more access and opportunities for the exceptional talent here at home, whose ideas and stories continue to captivate audiences around the world.”

Anita Lee, TIFF’s chief programming officer, likened the market to the ones at the Cannes Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival.

“It’s really filling a gap in the ecosystem. Both of those markets are earlier on in the year, in the spring,” she said on the carpet. “Now, films that are premiering in the fall have a robust market that they can also participate in.”

On stage at the event, Lee said the festival’s Canadian lineup this year includes 61 features and shorts, 55 of which are having their world premiere at TIFF.

The features include “Villeneuve: The Rise of a Legend,” a biopic about Canadian F1 racer Gilles Villeneuve; “Closing Night,” about a renowned Hollywood star reconnecting with her family; and “Turtle Island Rap” about three Indigenous rappers.

“The films that premiere here are more than individual works. They contribute to how we see ourselves, how we understand one another and how Canada’s creative voice is experienced around the world,” she said.

The market runs alongside the festival, starting Sept. 10.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 19, 2026.