The real Toronto International Film Festival, like all truths, lies somewhere between opinions. While it has been kind to Canadian films, for the most part the festival is home to the promotion of the fall/winter line of American movies. Press junkets, which are usually held in Los Angeles or New York, are moved to Toronto for the ten days of the festival. Hollywood-based studios reserve hotel suites months in advance to promote their products and the men and women who star in them.

Although Canadian films are also promoted at the festival, for the most part coverage of these movies is overwhelmed by the national media coverage of American movies. Despite the knowledge that they will probably not measure up to the star power of American films, Canadian filmmakers continue to push their product out the door and down the street to “Toronto!”

Arvi Liimatainen, who has worked with Ann Wheeler on several films, and produced Marine Life for Crescent Entertainment, says the reason that filmmakers are so intent on getting their movies shown at the festival is that it is one of the few places where there is a potential for accessing American distribution.

“Canadian filmmaking is a big shuffle” he says. “Getting lost in the shuffle is a part of the challenge of making movies in Canada. Toronto looks across the country. If you’re part of the festival you can take advantage of all that the festival brings. It can be a fabulous showcase if you have a receptive audience. Even if the audience is not particularly appreciative, there is no real down side. It’s a win-win situation because you know that there’s a chance that distributors are going to see it. The only downside about the festival is if you don’t get in because the you lose the opportunities that come with it.”

The opportunities presented by the leading film festivals are so crucial to the distribution of Canadian films that most Canadian filmmakers schedule everything from screenwriting and applications for development funding through production to fit with the fall festival season (Toronto, Montreal and Venice.) “The pre-selection screenings are in April and May so it’s important that by then you are screening a mixed and fully corrected print” says Liimatainen.

Raymond Massey took two films to Toronto last year and is hoping to return as line producer of Lynne Stopkewich’s Suspicious River. Massey, Mort Ransen, Trevor Hodgson and David Bouck produced Davor Marjanovic’s My Father’s Angel while Massey also produced Ransen’s Touched. The two films made up almost half the contingent of B.C. dramatic features that went to Toronto last year.

Massey says that the odds are not in favour of filmmakers who attend the festival without their distribution in place. “It’s dog-eat-dog there” he says. “Last year (B.C. filmmaker) Scott Smith did an incredible job of marketing Rollercoaster but he came out of there without a distribution deal. (Reg Harkema’s) A Girl is a Girl had the theatre filled with press and buyers but didn’t nail down a distributor until recently. (Toronto-based Mongrel Media distributed the film to key Canadian markets in June.)
“But that probably has a lot to do with the state of the market in Canada. The best reason to apply to Toronto is the American and international distribution. The Germans are there, the Dutch are there and the Brits are there in a big way. You have all of the specialty divisions of the major studios there. In some ways it’s a toned down version of Cannes, but one that is more accessible to Canadian companies. If foreign distributors flock to your film in Toronto it generally portends good news for the future.”

Arne Olsen is hoping to take his directing debut Here’s To Life (formerly titled Old Hats) to Toronto but admits his film, which tells the story of a group of senior citizens, is not the kind of movie that usually does well at the festival. “In terms of the movies that go into the festival, this is off the beaten track” he says. “It’s much more traditional and is thus considered to be softer material than you usually find in Toronto. Most of the films there are cutting edge films that catch your eye. This film is more like Driving Miss Daisy . It’s a movie about bonding. But we’re proud of it.

“To be honest, I don’t really know what Toronto is looking for but I do think that all of the Canadian festivals are mostly interested in films that have shock value. At the same time I don’t think you should have to make a movie about death and suicide for people to take notice. I would think that people would be tired of those kinds of films by now.”

If they aren’t tired of those kinds of films, Olsen still feels that there is room for Here’s to Life since it does defy the trend. That alone could be enough to earn it a look from American distributors.

“We don’t know if Toronto will help us with that but perhaps if I go against trends then people will talk about that. I think It should be about great story telling and you shouldn’t have to think about whether the story telling will get you to a festival and whether you will pick up a distributor. Ultimately you have to be true to yourself and stick to your guns.”

Here’s to Life, Marine Life and Suspicious River, which sees Molly Parker playing a young woman whose mother was killed at the hands of her lover, went through the Canadian Perspectives selection process at Toronto with a decided advantage over many of the films that have filed entry forms. As movies that already have Canadian distribution they are just looking for American and international distributors.
Paul Scherzer and Joshua Hamelin don’t have Canadian distributors in place. Scherzer is the producer of No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed,a digital video film directed by Ross Weber while Hamelin wrote and directed Late Night Sessions, a dramatic feature about the Vancouver rave scene.

Hamelin says that while he has respect for Toronto’s potential to help movies get distribution, he isn’t sitting back and waiting for an invitation. He says that he has applied to over 40 festivals and is putting festivals that encourage first time directors at the top of his list.

“I want to take something away from the festivals that I attend” he says. “I want to meet with people who made their films at the same time that I did and learn how they did it. There is a also a sense of camaraderie between first time filmmakers. We do have a distributor that is willing to take us to pay TV but they have decided not to do a theatrical release.”

The problem for Late Night Sessions is that the British film Human Traffic, which follows the London rave scene, has already been released in North America. Being second into the marketplace could hamper both the film’s chances at being shown in Toronto and its potential for getting theatrical distribution. In addition to filing forms for the 40 festivals and signing with pay TV, he is looking at setting up public screenings in various Canadian centres. He is also considering a video release.

“If you’re a first time filmmaker from the west applying to Toronto, your chances of being accepted are not going to be very good. I look at the festival as a crap shoot. Wheeler and Stopkewich are applying as is Gary Burns (Kitchen Party) who has Way Downtown ready. So the competition is really stiff. If we don’t get in that’s fine but my real goal is to get it out to the people, to get it out at a commercial level. That way you have some viability for future projects. I made it so people could watch it and people could see something that they are not used to seeing.

“I’m a firm believer in the theory that whatever way you can get your film out to the public you should do it. We have shown our film to a few people and they are supporting us. I would have liked to have been at Sundance. Groove (an American film about raves) got distribution from Sony Classics. I am kicking myself that we weren’t ready because we might have been chosen to be the Canadian rep for the (rave) concept.”

Last year Paul Scherzer and director Harry Killas took the short film Babette’s Feet to Toronto but this year the film he hopes to take to the festival could very well be the only digital video in the Canadian Perspectives section. No More Monkeys Jumping On the Bed cost just $13,000 to make and could be blown up to 16mm on time for the festival.

“Telefilm (Canada) will pay for a 16mm blow up but not for a 35mm” he says. “It costs $300 a minute for a transfer to 35mm which is a problem because our film is a real talkie and the best way to get pristine sound is with a 35mm print. The bigger festivals are developing a digital sidebar which puts you between a rock and a hard place. If you are selected as part of the digital group then you’re ghettoized.”

Scherzer feels that digital video has to be treated with the same respect as film if only because it isn’t going away. At least not in British Columbia, which has never had the same kind of support from funders given to central Canada. He says that despite the fact that a number of young filmmakers are using digital video, there is still some prejudice against it at festivals and from older filmmakers.

“Some are prejudiced” he says. “I’m a fan. In fact I want Harry Killas to make his first feature and if it’s going to be low budget it’s gong to have to be digital video. Some people think it has to look bad but if you have the money to transfer, it can look as good as anything that would show at a festival. There will be those who break the rules of what is traditionally done with film and others will just shoot it and it won’t be very good. We all watched Clerks and it did very well. It looks like crap and it had an intriguing story and witty dialogue. In my opinion, the festivals are going to have to understand that old school people shoot film and the rest of us don’t.”
(Stacey Donen, the programmer for Toronto’s Canadian Perspectives says that the festival “will be projecting Digital Beta this year.”)

If Scherzer does make it to Toronto again he says he won’t buy into the myth that you can come out of it with a million dollars in sales. “I do think that if it goes there it will mean that the right people will see it. Our film does not have a super strong hook. It’s a nice film about relationships. I don’t think there will be a bidding war over it. But it could mean acceptance for the film by the English Canadian scene. That would be enough.”