Toronto, Amsterdam Take Center Stage
Andy Marken September 27, 2024
0 Comments
Still waiting for the technology to catch up with the idea. I mean it's not easy, there are a lot of moving parts. - Night in the Museum, 20th Century Fox, 2006
Finally, things are starting to feel like there really is a new normal.
After the pandemic shutdown, followed by the squeezing of the industry by the US dual industry strikes, the entertainment industry has clawed back it's two main events that mark the beginning of the end of the year - the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and IBC.
One (TIFF) does a super job of attracting some of the best (and occasionally edgiest) films from around the world while the other (Amsterdam's IBC) marks a great gathering of leading edge/bleeding edge products, services and technology that folks will be using to tell even better video stories for us to enjoy.
TIFF isn't just an event where film hopefuls gather hoping to snag sales for domestic and international distribution. It also gives us a chance to see what's new and expanded in the most aggressive film production locations in North America.
Production Growth - Toronto's Basin Media Hub is just one of a number of content production studio projects under construction around the city. Even before the facilities are completed, films and shows are reserving the studios for upcoming projects
Sure, we're glad to see U.S. production centers are expanding in Atlanta, Tucson, the New York area, Austin and other locations; but the Canadian, Ontario and Toronto governments just seem to be more serious and committed to attracting project production north of the border with significant incentives.
In addition, TIFF attendance gives us a chance to catch up with old friends who tell us they are increasingly busy and in demand as writers, directors, producers, designers/decorators, filmmakers/cinematographers, DITs (digital imaging technicians), sound/video techs, sound/video editors, VFX, and animators.
But don't jump on the next bus/plane to Toronto because they have some of the best film schools in Toronto and are intent on growing their own talent.
Entertainment Galore - Content producers, actors, critics and the press as well as eager audiences and buyers gathered in Toronto to see some of the major and minor new films from around the world being shown at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival).
Still, September's TIFF is all about showing and selling films the event management did a great job of attracting not just film projects from seemingly everywhere but also in highlighting films that are shall we say edgy at times while advancing DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion).
At the end of the day though, it's all about the art of the deal - matching sellers with buyers.
Festival Hits - Projects shown at this year's TIFF included efforts in almost every genre and fom countries around the world including Bruce Springsteen (l), Nightbitch (center) and Relay.
Films that sold ahead of TIFF included Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Rebel Wilson's The Deb, Elton John: Never Too Late, The Last Showgirl, Nightbitch, Ben Stiller in Nutcrackers, and Relay.
Folks are already creating Oscar buzz for Angelina Jolie for her portrayal of Maria Callis in Maria and Daniel Craig for his interesting work in Queer.
Unlike in years past, there weren't any major pre-sales announced where directors and cast were hinted as to the possibilities if they got financing.
Most of the interest in the project came from US distributors including Lionsgate, A24 and Neon as well as major streaming organizations including Paramount, Netflix, Amazon Prime and Apple.
Projects that seemed to be snapped up for U.S. distribution were a continuing stream of drama and comedy titles.
International Fare - Films from almost every major film creation country were represented with the hopes of tapping into the Americas market including April from Georgia (l), Cloud from Japan (center) and Zwigato from India. There were a number of excellent message projects shown this year.
All of the action, horror, important message films and twisting documentaries were from the growing number international producers who were making their presence known at TIFF for our domestic market.
Thanks in no small part to how quickly AI has been put to what we feel is good use, there was a real variety of new content made in locations outside the Americas in native languages that were suddenly available to viewers here - if Netflix, Amazon, Apple and the others acquire them for viewers here in the Americas.
There were a lot of films done by international filmmakers we're hoping will find their way to U.S. streamers including Superboys of Malegaon, Saba, The Assessment, All We Imagine As Light, The Brutalist, and The Cloud.
These breaths of fresh air and global options probably wouldn't even be considered for showing on our services if it wasn't for the rapid advances in AI-enabled localization technology and we wanted to explore that subject in greater depth at IBC.
Of course, what is an event without a little bit of controversy. There was an on, off, on again struggle with the airing of Russians at War, a documentary on the Russian assault on the Ukraine.
But it was just one of the nearly 270 films shown at this year's TIFF; and hopefully, the event will attract more concrete buyers next year.
Amsterdam Activities - This year's return of IBC saw a return to the new normal for the content industry. Exhibitors and attendees from around the globe were focused on finding out what's new and what's changing in the content industry.
On the lighter and more enjoyable side of the industry, nothing can beat an information-packed week in Amsterdam for IBC.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Toronto, Amsterdam Take Center Stage 
