TIFF deal-makers face less than stellar year
Last Updated: Thursday, September 17, 2009 | 5:33 PM ET
CBC News
Uncertainty has emerged as a theme in many films and amongst deal-makers alike at the Toronto International Film Festival this year.
According to industry trade media, only a handful of films have garnered much-coveted U.S. distribution deals.
Among these are the drama A Single Man (The Weinstein Co.), by designer-turned-director Tom Ford; Nicolas Winding Refn's Viking adventure Valhalla Rising (IFC); and Canadian Peter Stebbings's superhero comedy Defendor (Sony Pictures Worldwide).
Other films reportedly under negotiation include Venice Film Festival-winner Lebanon, Atom Egoyan's sensual drama Chloe and the Barnes Foundation art-dispute documentary The Art of the Steal.
A massive breakout hit like 2008's Slumdog Millionaire has yet to emerge.
Despite the lack of major U.S. or multi-territory purchases, industry representatives have noted that films are nonetheless striking smaller territorial deals.
Domestically, for instance, distributor Alliance Films secured the rights to release Suck, A Single Man and Defendor in Canada, while E1 Entertainment picked up Egoyan's Chloe before TIFF even got started.
"How heartbreaking is it to see movies that cost $20 million with no distributors?" lawyer and sales agent John Sloss, who worked on the Defendor deal, said in Hollywood trade newspaper Variety.
"The smart approach is to divide up … deals, whether those deals come with advances or not," Sloss said. That's not a consolation prize, in my mind."
The festival continues through Saturday.
