Toronto’s long-established dealmaking acquired a formal framework this year with TIFF: The Market, a new platform for sales, financing and international partnerships backed by CAD $23 million (USD $14.3 million) in federal funding. Running September 10–16, 2026, it was based out of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, with sales suites at the InterContinental Toronto Centre and Ritz-Carlton alongside screenings at TIFF Lightbox and Scotiabank Theatre. 

TIFF reported close to 7,000 Market delegates by the festival’s end, compared with 5,000 industry attendees in 2025. The launch sought to turn the festival’s cinephile appeal and international reach into more structured business opportunities.

For Lucky Number’s Ola Byszuk, Toronto proved more useful with one film than it had with five. The international film sales company’s sole selection this year was Sabu’s “Arrested Memory” in Midnight Madness, against five titles, including three world premieres, last year.

“Much more useful than last year,” was her assessment. “But I clearly felt that the organizers of the TIFF market brought many buyers to Toronto.”

Michelle Arocha of Ascot Elite, a Zurich based film production and marketing company, also welcomed the expanded contacts. “It was great to meet some European companies that don’t usually attend TIFF,” she said, explaining that she felt the organizers had succeeded in attracting a significantly larger buyer contingent to Toronto

An Appetite, But Not For Everything
More opportunities to meet did not necessarily mean faster buying decisions. “The biggest trend I noticed was buyer hesitation, which has been consistent all year,” said Geremia Biagiotti, the Sales, Marketing & Acquisitions Manager at Intramovies, a production and distribution firm. “Just like at Berlin and Cannes, distributors aren’t rushing in with wild offers to fight over every official selection. Most buyers are playing it safe: waiting to read reviews, watching what other distributors do, and waiting for organic buzz to build before pulling the trigger.”

Sasha Manning, an independent film sales consultant attending for The Launch Company, described a similar balance. “There’s selective appetite. Buyers are relatively active but disciplined. More positivity than expected, though risk is still being carefully compartmentalized,” she said. “The challenge? It’s still a screening-heavy market, so pre-selling remains tough. There’s a lot of ‘wait and see’.”

Genre fare offered some openings. “We’ve seen horror taking off recently, but there were also some rom-com titles being discussed for pre-buys,” Arocha said. “Overall, buyers seem open to different genres as long as the project is a strong film.”

Byszuk found considerable buyer interest in Midnight Madness, but a tougher environment for arthouse films elsewhere in the program. With fewer buyers than at Cannes or Berlin, she said, “Those who are there are mostly focusing on more commercial films so it’s difficult to get them interested in numerous more arthouse titles in the very rich festival program.”

Norwegian arthouse distributor Frank L. Stavik of Fidalgo offered a less downbeat perspective. “The mood seems upbeat from an acquisitions point of view,” he said, citing younger audiences returning to cinemas and an encouraging supply of projects. “As for willingness to take risks, that’s what we do all the time; in the bigger picture it depends on what part of the industry one looks at; the more commercial side maybe not so much, while the more ‘arthousy’ side maybe more so.” At the time of his response, however, Fidalgo had not found any standout discoveries at this year’s market..

What Counts As Business?
Biagiotti cautioned against measuring a market only through immediate deals. “For sales agents, business is an ongoing process now. Markets aren’t really about making impulse deals on the spot anymore; they’re where we wrap up existing negotiations or launch new titles after weeks of prep work,” he said. “Between digital screeners, remote B2B tools, and year-round pitching, we don’t strictly need physical markets to trade content the way we used to.

“What we do need are events that facilitate human connection,” he added. “TIFF’s market proved its value by bringing people together – helping us get to know new players in an industry that still has a high turnover, compare notes on distributor strategies, and get a realistic pulse on different regional markets.”

For Arocha, that longer view also mattered. “I think the main value was networking and maintaining strong relationships,” she said. “It was a good opportunity to reconnect with existing partners and meet new potential contacts, which can hopefully lead to concrete business opportunities further down the line.”

Manning saw Toronto as complementary to established markets, allowing companies to reconnect after summer and introduce projects before the American Film Market. Its proximity to the festival was central: “It sits you next to programmers, critics, talent and press in a way that creates genuine conversation around the work, not just the marketplace.”

She also saw opportunities on the filmmaker and financing side. “Compared to other markets where you’re stacking meetings like speed dating, at TIFF you can breathe, and that creates space for other kinds of discussions,” she said.

A More Focused Meeting Place
The physical setup attracted more qualified praise. “The convention center itself is very nice, although there seemed to be quite a lot of free space and less movement than perhaps expected,” Arocha observed. “By the end of the day, people shift their focus to TIFF and the films.”

Biagiotti wanted a smaller footprint. “Moving away from the crowded Hyatt lobby was the right call, but the Metro Toronto Convention Center felt way too big and spread out for what was actually needed,” he said. “The top priority should definitely be scaling down the market venue to create a more focused, cohesive space.”

Stavik likewise favored a more compact location closer to the cinemas. Biagiotti also called for improvements to accreditation, ticketing and the app, while Arocha wanted more international buyers and networking opportunities.

Manning’s prescription was to accommodate the business activity already happening elsewhere. “Formalize the hotel infrastructure rather than fight it,” she said. “Deal-making still centers around a few specific hotels,” she stated. The TIFF Market would be stronger if it worked with that existing ecosystem rather than trying to replace it.”

TIFF’s spot on the festival calendar produced less agreement. Biagiotti valued TIFF’s position after the summer festivals: “Coming right after summer, it’s perfect for catching up on titles that premiered at Venice, Telluride, and Locarno, while setting the stage for San Sebastian and Busan.”

Byszuk, however, proposed a shift. “I’d move the dates to October to reinforce its position as the main fall market, which would allow for more projects to be launched there.”

The disagreements suggest TIFF’s next step is not simply expansion, but a setup that works with buyers’ and sellers’ schedules, screening priorities and existing relationships. Whether this year’s promising contacts become business will help determine how firmly the new market earns its place on their calendars.

Byszuk’s suggestion of an October move also points to a larger question about what TIFF wants its Market to become. Greater distance from the September festival rush could give sales agencies more room to launch new projects and strengthen Toronto’s claim to being the key autumn meeting point. But it would also push the event closer to November’s AFM, intensifying competition for buyers, sales agents and travel budgets. The challenge for TIFF, therefore, may be less about simply attracting more attendees than establishing a sufficiently distinct commercial function within an already crowded international market calendar.