The 2025 Toronto Film Festival is in full swing, and while the red carpets and premieres dominate the headlines, the talk at the halfway point has shifted to next year and TIFF’s plans to launch its first official content market.

For decades, Toronto has thrived with a bustling but informal market, primarily for finished films (unlike L.A’s American Film Market in November, where the biggest deals are for film packages seeking financing). But TIFF has never had an official marketplace, where buyers and sellers could set up shop to peddle movies under one roof. 

That will change in 2026 with the launch of TIFF: The Market, a seven-day event scheduled for Sept. 10-16. Bankrolled by a $16 million (CAD $23 million) investment from the Canadian government, the new initiative aims to make TIFF a hub for all things content, not just a film market but also a one-stop shop for television, gaming and immersive formats, a co-production forum and a works-in-progress showcase. 

Among industry veterans, TIFF’s market plans have sparked equal parts curiosity and skepticism. The biggest concern is timing. TIFF falls just three months after Cannes, too early for many projects to be fully packaged, and weeks before AFM, traditionally the fall market for putting deals together. 

“It will be much harder to get packages together over the summer after Cannes,” says Mongrel Media co-president Andrew Frank. “Even at AFM, you see how packages only come together at the last moment, and Toronto is even earlier.”

Frank also questions the economics. “With costs going up, will people come to two markets — Toronto and AFM? They have to figure out what their delta is, what makes Toronto a unique proposition. I don’t know what that is yet.” 

Notes Cornerstone Films co-founder Mark Gooder: “They have a big pot of money to spend. It depends on how they spend it. Will the money be used to support sellers as well as buyers to come here?”

Not that AFM is in great shape. After last year’s poorly received stint in Las Vegas, the market will return to Los Angeles this November at a new, untested venue — the Fairmont Century Plaza in Century City. Adding to the uncertainty, Jean Prewitt, head of the Independent Film & Television Alliance, which runs the American Film Market, will step down at year’s end. 

AFM’s current weakness could provide an opening for TIFF, particularly for Europeans who don’t want, or can’t afford, to make two costly trips to North America. 

“AFM is not a market we attend, so [after Cannes] our next one is Berlin [in February],” explains Samuel Blanc of French sales group The Party Film Sales. “It would be really useful to have a fall market for art house films, because the AFM doesn’t fill that role. If they do it right, it could re-dynamize that time of the year.”

TIFF has been careful to stress that the new initiative will not simply replicate other markets. “It is a content market, not a film market,” notes TIFF’s chief programming officer Anita Lee. In addition to film, the new TIFF market will include television and gaming as well as XR and immersive content. But those ambitions raise other questions about the industry calendar. Gamescom, the world’s largest gaming expo, takes place in Cologne just two weeks earlier. MIPCOM, the top TV market, comes to Cannes a month later. TIFF could risk diluting its impact by trying to be all things to all people.

But at a time of general industry disruption — “the business model for independent film is gone and we haven’t found a new one yet,” says Gooder — most industry players are willing to give TIFF a chance. Many see Toronto as a natural bridge between the U.S. and international industries and a logical hub for international financing and co-production. 

“With changing production financing and distribution models, a Toronto-based marketplace builds on TIFF’s international prestige and represents a logical next step,” says Jim Sternberg, a partner at Make Good, a Toronto-based consultancy for film financing and business affairs.

“We’re seeing more and more producers look to co-production to navigate the complex financial landscape,” adds Charles Auty, chief commercial officer at debt financing group Elevate Production Finance. “Establishing those producer relationships early can be a useful aid to support the proper development of projects.”

Then there is the Trump factor. 

“A lot of buyers, particularly from Europe, are concerned about traveling to the U.S. right now, given the current political climate,” notes Gooder. “They’d be much happier with a trip to Toronto than with dealing with Homeland Security.”

Etan Vlessing contributed to this report.