Toronto International Film Festival

Toronto International Film Festival, annual motion-picture festival held for two weeks in September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1975, this noncompetitive festival features a broad selection of world cinema in its program of over 250 films, many of which are world premieres. Festival organizers present film selections in a broad array of programs, including surveys of Asian, Latin American, and African cinema; a retrospective of first films by established directors; and a so-called spotlight on the work of a given filmmaker. Drawing nearly 250,000 viewers annually, the Toronto festival is one of the world's best-attended film festivals.

The Toronto festival is a marketplace as well as a showcase for many of the world's most acclaimed films, and it has become a crucial source for the discovery of new films by motion-picture acquisitions companies. Several established film directors have found early commercial success at the Toronto festival. French director Jean-Jacques Beineix's Diva (1982) was discovered in Toronto, as was Blood Simple (1984), the debut by American filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen. The 1989 Toronto debut of the documentary Roger and Me earned its director, American filmmaker Michael Moore, a $4-million contract with Warner Bros. The festival formalized its status as a marketplace in 1991 by establishing the Sales Offices, a venue that brings together buyers from around the globe with filmmakers trying to market their films. Nevertheless, the Toronto festival achieves a rare balance between art and commerce: Its diverse and liberal mix of films includes difficult, avant-garde, and overtly political cinema, as well as more commercial features. Although the Toronto festival remains noncompetitive, its program Perspective Canada, the premier showcase for Canadian cinema, annually offers a $25,000 award to the best Canadian feature film. Motion Pictures, History of.