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TIFF vs. Telluride tussle turns movie premieres into a battle of wills
Thursday July 10th 2014Cameron Bailey says this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (Sept. 4-14) will be another great celebration of the best of world cinema.
Tom Bernard says TIFF is in danger of becoming a “damaged” event, with fewer major movies and filmmakers.
So go the highly polarized views of these two top industry players: Bailey is TIFF’s artistic director and Bernard is the co-president (with Michael Barker) of Sony Pictures Classics, a New York distribution and production label that supplies the fest with many prized movies.
At issue is the controversial recent policy change by TIFF aimed at stopping the poaching of premiere status for high-profile films at its annual fall event. Bailey says the policy brings clarity to muddy waters. Bernard calls it an “imperialistic” move that sows confusion and disharmony and could hurt Toronto, while also potentially affecting the next Oscar race.
The new policy states that all films playing during the fest’s first four days, from Thursday through Sunday inclusive, must be either be a world or North American premiere. Films failing to meet these criteria will screen in the last week of the 11-day event.
Bailey made the announcement primarily in response to expansive moves by Colorado’s Telluride Film Festival, which used to be a quiet affair for well-heeled cinephiles over the Labour Day weekend. Telluride has grown to become a much bigger deal, adding an additional day of screenings for last year’s 40th anniversary (back to normal this year), plus a large new venue while, at the same time, attracting much more attention from journalists, bloggers and tweeters.
Telluride has also become much more aggressive about getting the first showings of films that are supposed to officially debut at TIFF a few days later — such as last year’s hot ticket 12 Years a Slave, which went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture. The film came to Toronto already declared a major Oscar contender by some Telluride attendees, much to TIFF’s chagrin.
The reason this issue is important, as I explained in a previous column, is that festival sponsors, journalists and moviegoers all want to be the first in the world or at least in North America to see anticipated new films. Premieres also draw the participation of directors and talent, who would be less likely to come to Toronto if TIFF devolved into a second-run festival.
The new premieres policy has for the most part been well received, Bailey said this week from Paris, where he’s been seeing dozen of new French films along with Piers Handling, TIFF’s director and CEO, and Kerri Craddock, TIFF’s senior manager of festival programming. They’re well into making selections for their September showcase.
“We’ve seen a bunch of great movies already,” Bailey said.
“I know we’re going to have a terrific lineup and I think what we’ve been able to do is just clarify the landscape for not just us but other festivals as well. And still deliver a great festival for our audience, so I’m happy with that.”
When he first announced the new policy back in January, there was some initial confusion from studios, filmmakers and distributors as to what exactly it meant. Some mistakenly thought the policy applied to the entire festival, but it’s only to the first four days — which also happen to be the days that draw the most media attention.
Bailey said the word is now out.
“It’s definitely getting through. What’s great is that everybody is very clear now about where else they want the film to play and what that means if they want to also accept a Toronto invitation.
“So we’re not out to pull films away from going elsewhere, whether it’s in North America or Europe or somewhere else. But if (a film) does go somewhere else we just need to have something clear in place and now that we can actually say it with real clarity, people get it.”
Bernard disagrees; he insists he doesn’t get it. A long-time supporter of both TIFF and Telluride, along with his Sony Pictures Classic co-founder Barker, he feels torn between the audience-friendly fest that is Toronto and the Oscar-wooing fest that is Telluride. He wants the Toronto audience buzz and bigger media attention but he also wants quality time with Telluride’s large contingent of Academy voters.
As usual, SPC has a full slate of prestige films it plans to carefully roll out over the fall festival circuit and beyond, including several big titles it acquired at last month’s Cannes Film Festival: prize winners Mr. Turner and Leviathan and the awards contender Foxcatcher, starring Steve Carell, Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo.
“They seem to be losing their point of view about being a filmmaker-friendly festival … to sort of put a blockade up against a small festival in the mountains seems a bit imperialistic, doesn’t it?” Bernard said from New York of TIFF’s premieres policy.
“I know there are a lot of people out there who are not happy and a lot of filmmakers who are very angry. I heard this statement from the Toronto festival that kind of shocked me, when they said, ‘We want our festival to take ownership for these big movies in going to the Oscars.’ I didn’t know the festival owned movies!”
Bernard predicted that many filmmakers who are forced to choose between Telluride and Toronto for their official premieres will choose Telluride and skip Toronto.
“I think this could damage the festival,” he warned.
Premiering in the latter part of TIFF’s 11-day run isn’t “a carrot” for many filmmakers or distributors, Bernard added, but he admitted he’s not sure how many feel this way and he didn’t tip his own plans for the two fests.
Telluride has nothing to say about this, at least not to the Toronto Star. My repeated attempts to contact Telluride officials since January brought zero response from festival chiefs Julie Huntsinger, Tom Luddy and Gary Meyer. Telluride spokeswoman Shannon Mitchell finally said by email this week: “We’d like to thank you for the chance to respond, but we have no comment.”
Bernard suggested a compromise to the premiere tussle.
TIFF could create special evening premiere slots for the first Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the festival at major venues such as Roy Thomson Hall and the Princess of Wales and Elgin theatres. That would give TIFF some exclusive premieres, while also allowing Telluride and other fests first dibs on showing other movies.
“We did try something like that,” Bailey countered.
“The last couple of years we had a kind of very informal approach, where we would be looking for true world premieres for our biggest slots, for the galas in Roy Thomson Hall and the Princess of Wales and the Elgin on Friday and Saturday, and while we did our best to make that happen, things would happen at the last minute … without a clear policy that was across the board and really simple to communicate, it was hard to actually achieve the effect that we wanted.”
By “last minute” Bailey means things like Telluride suddenly announcing it would be showing a Toronto-bound title. Telluride historically keeps its programming schedule secret until the festival begins, adding “surprises” and “sneaks” as it goes. TIFF, by contrast, begins announcing its festival slate in July and keeps adding to it until a week or two before the fest begins.
The first TIFF press conference for the 2014 festival is scheduled for July 22. Bailey is confident he’ll be able to unveil titles at this presser and others during the summer that will prove the festival won’t be hurt by its get-tough approach to premieres.
It’s not about gamesmanship, he insists. It’s about honesty. He wants to look his TIFF audiences in the eye and tell them they’re seeing a genuine premiere, not one with an “an asterisk” attached to it because it already showed elsewhere.
“It’s about being able to get up on stage, and when something is a world premiere, you can say it in confidence that that’s what it means to a Toronto audience,” Bailey said.
“The same thing with a North American premiere. You are the first audience, Toronto, to see this film on this continent and that means something. So that’s really what it is about.”
Source: Toronto Star
Headline, Industry News
TIFF vs. Telluride tussle turns movie premieres into a battle of wills
Thursday July 10th 2014Cameron Bailey says this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (Sept. 4-14) will be another great celebration of the best of world cinema.
Tom Bernard says TIFF is in danger of becoming a “damaged” event, with fewer major movies and filmmakers.
So go the highly polarized views of these two top industry players: Bailey is TIFF’s artistic director and Bernard is the co-president (with Michael Barker) of Sony Pictures Classics, a New York distribution and production label that supplies the fest with many prized movies.
At issue is the controversial recent policy change by TIFF aimed at stopping the poaching of premiere status for high-profile films at its annual fall event. Bailey says the policy brings clarity to muddy waters. Bernard calls it an “imperialistic” move that sows confusion and disharmony and could hurt Toronto, while also potentially affecting the next Oscar race.
The new policy states that all films playing during the fest’s first four days, from Thursday through Sunday inclusive, must be either be a world or North American premiere. Films failing to meet these criteria will screen in the last week of the 11-day event.
Bailey made the announcement primarily in response to expansive moves by Colorado’s Telluride Film Festival, which used to be a quiet affair for well-heeled cinephiles over the Labour Day weekend. Telluride has grown to become a much bigger deal, adding an additional day of screenings for last year’s 40th anniversary (back to normal this year), plus a large new venue while, at the same time, attracting much more attention from journalists, bloggers and tweeters.
Telluride has also become much more aggressive about getting the first showings of films that are supposed to officially debut at TIFF a few days later — such as last year’s hot ticket 12 Years a Slave, which went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture. The film came to Toronto already declared a major Oscar contender by some Telluride attendees, much to TIFF’s chagrin.
The reason this issue is important, as I explained in a previous column, is that festival sponsors, journalists and moviegoers all want to be the first in the world or at least in North America to see anticipated new films. Premieres also draw the participation of directors and talent, who would be less likely to come to Toronto if TIFF devolved into a second-run festival.
The new premieres policy has for the most part been well received, Bailey said this week from Paris, where he’s been seeing dozen of new French films along with Piers Handling, TIFF’s director and CEO, and Kerri Craddock, TIFF’s senior manager of festival programming. They’re well into making selections for their September showcase.
“We’ve seen a bunch of great movies already,” Bailey said.
“I know we’re going to have a terrific lineup and I think what we’ve been able to do is just clarify the landscape for not just us but other festivals as well. And still deliver a great festival for our audience, so I’m happy with that.”
When he first announced the new policy back in January, there was some initial confusion from studios, filmmakers and distributors as to what exactly it meant. Some mistakenly thought the policy applied to the entire festival, but it’s only to the first four days — which also happen to be the days that draw the most media attention.
Bailey said the word is now out.
“It’s definitely getting through. What’s great is that everybody is very clear now about where else they want the film to play and what that means if they want to also accept a Toronto invitation.
“So we’re not out to pull films away from going elsewhere, whether it’s in North America or Europe or somewhere else. But if (a film) does go somewhere else we just need to have something clear in place and now that we can actually say it with real clarity, people get it.”
Bernard disagrees; he insists he doesn’t get it. A long-time supporter of both TIFF and Telluride, along with his Sony Pictures Classic co-founder Barker, he feels torn between the audience-friendly fest that is Toronto and the Oscar-wooing fest that is Telluride. He wants the Toronto audience buzz and bigger media attention but he also wants quality time with Telluride’s large contingent of Academy voters.
As usual, SPC has a full slate of prestige films it plans to carefully roll out over the fall festival circuit and beyond, including several big titles it acquired at last month’s Cannes Film Festival: prize winners Mr. Turner and Leviathan and the awards contender Foxcatcher, starring Steve Carell, Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo.
“They seem to be losing their point of view about being a filmmaker-friendly festival … to sort of put a blockade up against a small festival in the mountains seems a bit imperialistic, doesn’t it?” Bernard said from New York of TIFF’s premieres policy.
“I know there are a lot of people out there who are not happy and a lot of filmmakers who are very angry. I heard this statement from the Toronto festival that kind of shocked me, when they said, ‘We want our festival to take ownership for these big movies in going to the Oscars.’ I didn’t know the festival owned movies!”
Bernard predicted that many filmmakers who are forced to choose between Telluride and Toronto for their official premieres will choose Telluride and skip Toronto.
“I think this could damage the festival,” he warned.
Premiering in the latter part of TIFF’s 11-day run isn’t “a carrot” for many filmmakers or distributors, Bernard added, but he admitted he’s not sure how many feel this way and he didn’t tip his own plans for the two fests.
Telluride has nothing to say about this, at least not to the Toronto Star. My repeated attempts to contact Telluride officials since January brought zero response from festival chiefs Julie Huntsinger, Tom Luddy and Gary Meyer. Telluride spokeswoman Shannon Mitchell finally said by email this week: “We’d like to thank you for the chance to respond, but we have no comment.”
Bernard suggested a compromise to the premiere tussle.
TIFF could create special evening premiere slots for the first Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the festival at major venues such as Roy Thomson Hall and the Princess of Wales and Elgin theatres. That would give TIFF some exclusive premieres, while also allowing Telluride and other fests first dibs on showing other movies.
“We did try something like that,” Bailey countered.
“The last couple of years we had a kind of very informal approach, where we would be looking for true world premieres for our biggest slots, for the galas in Roy Thomson Hall and the Princess of Wales and the Elgin on Friday and Saturday, and while we did our best to make that happen, things would happen at the last minute … without a clear policy that was across the board and really simple to communicate, it was hard to actually achieve the effect that we wanted.”
By “last minute” Bailey means things like Telluride suddenly announcing it would be showing a Toronto-bound title. Telluride historically keeps its programming schedule secret until the festival begins, adding “surprises” and “sneaks” as it goes. TIFF, by contrast, begins announcing its festival slate in July and keeps adding to it until a week or two before the fest begins.
The first TIFF press conference for the 2014 festival is scheduled for July 22. Bailey is confident he’ll be able to unveil titles at this presser and others during the summer that will prove the festival won’t be hurt by its get-tough approach to premieres.
It’s not about gamesmanship, he insists. It’s about honesty. He wants to look his TIFF audiences in the eye and tell them they’re seeing a genuine premiere, not one with an “an asterisk” attached to it because it already showed elsewhere.
“It’s about being able to get up on stage, and when something is a world premiere, you can say it in confidence that that’s what it means to a Toronto audience,” Bailey said.
“The same thing with a North American premiere. You are the first audience, Toronto, to see this film on this continent and that means something. So that’s really what it is about.”
Source: Toronto Star
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Headline, Industry News
TIFF vs. Telluride tussle turns movie premieres into a battle of wills
Thursday July 10th 2014Cameron Bailey says this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (Sept. 4-14) will be another great celebration of the best of world cinema.
Tom Bernard says TIFF is in danger of becoming a “damaged” event, with fewer major movies and filmmakers.
So go the highly polarized views of these two top industry players: Bailey is TIFF’s artistic director and Bernard is the co-president (with Michael Barker) of Sony Pictures Classics, a New York distribution and production label that supplies the fest with many prized movies.
At issue is the controversial recent policy change by TIFF aimed at stopping the poaching of premiere status for high-profile films at its annual fall event. Bailey says the policy brings clarity to muddy waters. Bernard calls it an “imperialistic” move that sows confusion and disharmony and could hurt Toronto, while also potentially affecting the next Oscar race.
The new policy states that all films playing during the fest’s first four days, from Thursday through Sunday inclusive, must be either be a world or North American premiere. Films failing to meet these criteria will screen in the last week of the 11-day event.
Bailey made the announcement primarily in response to expansive moves by Colorado’s Telluride Film Festival, which used to be a quiet affair for well-heeled cinephiles over the Labour Day weekend. Telluride has grown to become a much bigger deal, adding an additional day of screenings for last year’s 40th anniversary (back to normal this year), plus a large new venue while, at the same time, attracting much more attention from journalists, bloggers and tweeters.
Telluride has also become much more aggressive about getting the first showings of films that are supposed to officially debut at TIFF a few days later — such as last year’s hot ticket 12 Years a Slave, which went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture. The film came to Toronto already declared a major Oscar contender by some Telluride attendees, much to TIFF’s chagrin.
The reason this issue is important, as I explained in a previous column, is that festival sponsors, journalists and moviegoers all want to be the first in the world or at least in North America to see anticipated new films. Premieres also draw the participation of directors and talent, who would be less likely to come to Toronto if TIFF devolved into a second-run festival.
The new premieres policy has for the most part been well received, Bailey said this week from Paris, where he’s been seeing dozen of new French films along with Piers Handling, TIFF’s director and CEO, and Kerri Craddock, TIFF’s senior manager of festival programming. They’re well into making selections for their September showcase.
“We’ve seen a bunch of great movies already,” Bailey said.
“I know we’re going to have a terrific lineup and I think what we’ve been able to do is just clarify the landscape for not just us but other festivals as well. And still deliver a great festival for our audience, so I’m happy with that.”
When he first announced the new policy back in January, there was some initial confusion from studios, filmmakers and distributors as to what exactly it meant. Some mistakenly thought the policy applied to the entire festival, but it’s only to the first four days — which also happen to be the days that draw the most media attention.
Bailey said the word is now out.
“It’s definitely getting through. What’s great is that everybody is very clear now about where else they want the film to play and what that means if they want to also accept a Toronto invitation.
“So we’re not out to pull films away from going elsewhere, whether it’s in North America or Europe or somewhere else. But if (a film) does go somewhere else we just need to have something clear in place and now that we can actually say it with real clarity, people get it.”
Bernard disagrees; he insists he doesn’t get it. A long-time supporter of both TIFF and Telluride, along with his Sony Pictures Classic co-founder Barker, he feels torn between the audience-friendly fest that is Toronto and the Oscar-wooing fest that is Telluride. He wants the Toronto audience buzz and bigger media attention but he also wants quality time with Telluride’s large contingent of Academy voters.
As usual, SPC has a full slate of prestige films it plans to carefully roll out over the fall festival circuit and beyond, including several big titles it acquired at last month’s Cannes Film Festival: prize winners Mr. Turner and Leviathan and the awards contender Foxcatcher, starring Steve Carell, Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo.
“They seem to be losing their point of view about being a filmmaker-friendly festival … to sort of put a blockade up against a small festival in the mountains seems a bit imperialistic, doesn’t it?” Bernard said from New York of TIFF’s premieres policy.
“I know there are a lot of people out there who are not happy and a lot of filmmakers who are very angry. I heard this statement from the Toronto festival that kind of shocked me, when they said, ‘We want our festival to take ownership for these big movies in going to the Oscars.’ I didn’t know the festival owned movies!”
Bernard predicted that many filmmakers who are forced to choose between Telluride and Toronto for their official premieres will choose Telluride and skip Toronto.
“I think this could damage the festival,” he warned.
Premiering in the latter part of TIFF’s 11-day run isn’t “a carrot” for many filmmakers or distributors, Bernard added, but he admitted he’s not sure how many feel this way and he didn’t tip his own plans for the two fests.
Telluride has nothing to say about this, at least not to the Toronto Star. My repeated attempts to contact Telluride officials since January brought zero response from festival chiefs Julie Huntsinger, Tom Luddy and Gary Meyer. Telluride spokeswoman Shannon Mitchell finally said by email this week: “We’d like to thank you for the chance to respond, but we have no comment.”
Bernard suggested a compromise to the premiere tussle.
TIFF could create special evening premiere slots for the first Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the festival at major venues such as Roy Thomson Hall and the Princess of Wales and Elgin theatres. That would give TIFF some exclusive premieres, while also allowing Telluride and other fests first dibs on showing other movies.
“We did try something like that,” Bailey countered.
“The last couple of years we had a kind of very informal approach, where we would be looking for true world premieres for our biggest slots, for the galas in Roy Thomson Hall and the Princess of Wales and the Elgin on Friday and Saturday, and while we did our best to make that happen, things would happen at the last minute … without a clear policy that was across the board and really simple to communicate, it was hard to actually achieve the effect that we wanted.”
By “last minute” Bailey means things like Telluride suddenly announcing it would be showing a Toronto-bound title. Telluride historically keeps its programming schedule secret until the festival begins, adding “surprises” and “sneaks” as it goes. TIFF, by contrast, begins announcing its festival slate in July and keeps adding to it until a week or two before the fest begins.
The first TIFF press conference for the 2014 festival is scheduled for July 22. Bailey is confident he’ll be able to unveil titles at this presser and others during the summer that will prove the festival won’t be hurt by its get-tough approach to premieres.
It’s not about gamesmanship, he insists. It’s about honesty. He wants to look his TIFF audiences in the eye and tell them they’re seeing a genuine premiere, not one with an “an asterisk” attached to it because it already showed elsewhere.
“It’s about being able to get up on stage, and when something is a world premiere, you can say it in confidence that that’s what it means to a Toronto audience,” Bailey said.
“The same thing with a North American premiere. You are the first audience, Toronto, to see this film on this continent and that means something. So that’s really what it is about.”
Source: Toronto Star
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