The World Today
The Toronto Film Festival released its industry conference schedule on Monday, led by The Hollywood Reporter's Onstage Conversation Series.
Joining the program as featured speakers are Donna Langley, President of NBCUniversal Entertainment and Studios; Fremantle's Andrea Secrosati, COO and CEO of Continental Europe; Yelena Rachitsky, head of emerging formats at Meta ; Ballad of a Small Player Director Edward Berger; and Sterlin Harjo, who brings his FX series Under Tiff for a first look.
The 2025 dialogue program will feature conversations with directors Maude Apatow and Raffi Donatich ( Poetic License ), Jonatan Etzler, and independent producers Diana Bustamante, Julia Lebeedev, Yulia Evina Bhara, Alex C. Lo, and Daniel Bekerman, among others.
The TIFF Industry Conference also hosted panel discussions on achieving inclusive productions, Latin American cinema, productive arthouse television series, AI-powered storytelling, and Indigenous perspectives on creative sovereignty in film co-productions.
Toronto programmers unveiled their 50th edition of buyers program to offer more access to decision-makers, while TIFF eyes its first official Content Market in 2026, amid a global independent film market for change and challenge.
In addition to the major specialty distributors from Hollywood Studios and the U.S. who have established their own Toronto presence, TIFF has been looking to its planned official content market next year to bring new producers, distributors, buyers, and sales agents from established and emerging international markets to Toronto.
TIFF's content market will also focus on content packaging and financing, after the unofficial Toronto film market in the past has primarily seen finished film titles sold by buyers and sellers. The Toronto Film Festival, set to run from September 4-14, will open with Colin Hanks' documentary John Candy : I Like It.
