At last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, an indie horror film made for less than $1 million with no recognizable stars debuted as part of the Midnight Madness section. It was received warmly – reviews were positive but not euphoric. A few weeks later, Focus Features acquired it for release for $16 million, on the higher end for acquisitions and a vote of confidence that it could do well. The studio staked out a May release date, hoping for a bit of counterprogramming opposite “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” and “The Devil Wears Prada 2.”
That indie movie was “Obsession.”
It made over $500 million, catapulted its writer-director Curry Barker into one of the most in-demand filmmakers in town and launched Inde Navarrette into superstardom.
Now, as the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival nears a year later, “Obsession” still lingers in the minds of buyers TheWrap spoke to ahead of the fest, which is also launching its first-ever official market this year. And although most agree that Barker’s horror smash is the exception not the rule when it comes to festival pickups, its box office success alongside other Gen Z-popular movies this year like “Backrooms” and A24’s “The Drama” has skewed what some buyers are looking for. The most important hook for a project is no longer a big name star or a piece of IP, but originality, they said. There’s a heavy focus on finding movies that appeal to Gen Z as the younger generation shows an affinity for going to movie theaters — but not just for any film.
“Generally, it seems that the buyers are really focused on the Gen Z demo, and I think it’s proven from obviously ‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession,’ the data is starting to show that they are going to become a powerful theater-going demo,” said Neil Shah, head of film producer and financier Tango, which was behind Sundance horror hit “Together,” this fall’s upcoming “Wicker” and has the Michelle Yeoh thriller “The Surgeon” at TIFF. “A lot of the conversations I’ve had have been around titles that cater to specifically that audience.”
Gersh agent Julien Levesque agreed that buyers are heading to TIFF looking for “the next ‘Obsession,’” but added that as studios look to replicate its success, it’s the independent world where the kinds of creative risks are being taken that are likely to pay off.
“When you make an “Obsession’ for under a million dollars, and you have such an incredible cast like that, you feel it,” he added. “Everything they did was executed at such a high level and so it goes to show that a space that has less money allows for more creativity and more freedom. You could take risks.”
Those risks will be on full display not only as part of the TIFF program, but as part of the official market where private screenings and script meetings will hopefully fuel more sales of films and packages than in the past. Although most insiders who spoke to TheWrap were dubious that the switch from “unofficial” to “official” market would make much of a difference in dealmaking, the optimism on the heels of “Obsession” is palpable.
It’ll be necessary if TIFF wants to buck the trend of smaller sales over the last few years. While “Obsession” was far and away the biggest sale at TIFF last year, other films like Steven Soderbergh’s “The Christophers,” Aaron Taylor-Johnson thriller “Fuze,” Nick Robinson/Emilia Jones romantic drama “Charlie Harper” and Gus Van Sant’s “Dead Man’s Wire” found homes, albeit on smaller scales. The highest grosser of that bunch was “Fuze,” which made just $5 million.
One of those buyers, Row K Entertainment, which used last year’s TIFF as a coming out party, won’t be around after losing key leadership amid reports of financial struggles.
Those players that are showing up are on the hunt for something fresh.
Originality rules
Indeed, it’s precisely that creativity that many of the buyers who spoke to TheWrap said they’re after.
Katie Anderson, EVP of acquisitions at Black Bear, said there are “more and more outliers,” adding she’s grateful that the industry is starting to look at material differently. “It’s exciting to me that the narrative around town again is that originals are back,” she said.
Black Bear is one of a handful of new distributors that have cropped up over the last year or two, adding optimism to a film market that, post-COVID, had taken a beating. Black Bear’s releases thus far have been varied – the Leo Woodall crime thriller “Tuner” made $14 million against a $7 million budget earlier this year and the Jason Statham actioner “Shelter” grossed $54 million. The studio just launched the Matthew McConaughey Southern epic “The Rivals of Amziah King” on over 600 screens in August, although it has grossed just $3 million thus far.
Last year’s TIFF was around the time Black Bear launched its distribution arm, opting to release the Sydney Sweeney boxing drama “Christy” itself before it debuted at the festival. Black Bear also acquired distribution rights to “Tuner” out of last year’s festival, although it had also produced that film as well.
Next up for the studio is a Sundance acquisition, the fable “Wicker” starring Olivia Colman as a woman who wishes for a husband made out of wicker, played by Alexander Skarsgård. The trailer exploded on social media, with fans of “romantasy” books in particular flocking to the unique story.
Indeed, if there’s one thing that connects Black Bear’s slate and outlook thus far, it’s its focus on unique stories from singular filmmakers. That’s by design, and something Anderson is keeping in mind as she heads to Toronto.
“Lots of lessons learned in the first year, but I don’t think we’ve narrowed it down to any genre per se,” she said. “The things that we are looking for are things that feel original and distinctive. Things that feel like they earn the gravitas of a proper theatrical window and that there is an audience there baked in who wants to see the film. That could mean any genre, but I think we’re focused on filmmakers that have distinctive voices.”
That said, after the mild sales out of Sundance and Cannes this year, Anderson acknowledged that while there’s no shortage of movies to sell or studios to sell to, everyone understands that audiences are being “really discerning” right now, and buyers are being discerning in turn.
That makes predicting what could be a hot seller at TIFF difficult, although there are a few standouts. Zack Snyder will unveil his first-ever independent film, the graphically violent action thriller “The Last Photograph”; Courteney Cox directs a true crime adaptation about the “pizza bomber” in “Evil Genius” starring Patricia Arquette and David Harbour; there’s the aforementioned “The Surgeon” and Cynthia Erivo takes on the stage adaptation “Prima Facie.”
Then there are the complete unknowns, like a medieval ghost movie (“The Face of Horror”) or a sex comedy (“Everybody Wants to F*** Me”) that could spark.
The inaugural TIFF market
Beyond the films officially screening at TIFF, this year’s festival will be home to the first ever official Toronto film market. While there has always been an unofficial market at TIFF where buyers and sellers huddle in hotel rooms and lobbies to pore over packages and footage presentations, this year TIFF will make it official, adding a bit more infrastructure.
Most people TheWrap spoke to don’t expect the switch to make much of a change – one even said he expects he’ll still be taking most of his meetings in hotel rooms – but they welcomed the legitimacy, and one pondered if it might steal a bit of the American Film Market’s thunder as that busy dealmaking event takes place in November.
“The reality is in the sales world, any opportunity where you can get in front of your buyers, if you have the product, you’re going to take advantage of that opportunity,” said Zach Glueck, co-CEO of Manifest Pictures, which launched in January and is selling “Top Gun: Maverick” breakout Danny Ramirez’s directorial debut, the soccer drama “Baton.”
Both Glueck and Manifest co-CEO Yvette Zhuang said they felt optimistic about this year’s TIFF market given how Cannes and Berlin went earlier this year.
“When we went into Cannes, we definitely found the appetite was there, and even when we launched in Berlin, we closed deals with the major distributors, so I think that the marketplace is still relatively healthy,” she said. “We just need those great releases to keep coming. So it’s kind of on the sales agents to bring the right projects to market and to really have their finger on the pulse of what modern audiences want today.”
Smaller sales have become more commonplace at TIFF in recent years. Regardless, Levesque said he feels optimistic about this year’s market from Gersh’s point of view.
“I feel good. I can’t speak for other folks, but this year has been a great year for finished films for sales for us and going into this festival, I feel very confident with our slate and I do think that we’re going away from the two to three to four huge sales and having more smaller sales redefining success. What is a single? What’s a double? And what makes a healthier indie film ecosystem?”
But the appetite for some of the titles that usually sell at film markets like TIFF has also changed. Highland Film Group’s President of International Sales Todd Olsson said it’s the stars of streaming shows, not legendary screen actors, that Gen Z seems to be drawn to, pointing to a film called “Iron Jane” his company has that stars “1923” breakout Brandon Sklenar.
“It’s a changing world in that regard. I think the streamers pay attention to those kinds of things too, and what the streamers pay attention to, we should all be paying attention to because that’s our new downstream, so you have to get to that. And they want a younger audience,” he said.
What surprises will this year’s festival bring? We’ll find out soon enough.
