The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world.
Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September, in downtown Toronto. The organization behind the film festival is also a permanent destination for film culture at the TIFF Lightbox, which serves as a venue for some film screenings during the festival as well as cinematheque film series, commercial art house and independent film screenings, and other specialty film festivals, throughout the year.
The TIFF People's Choice Award – which is based on audience balloting – has emerged as an indicator of success during awards season, especially at the Academy Awards. Past recipients of this award include Oscar-winning films, such as Chariots of Fire (1981), Life Is Beautiful (1998), American Beauty (1999), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Slumdog Millionaire (2008), The King's Speech (2010), Silver Linings Playbook (2012), 12 Years a Slave (2013), The Imitation Game (2014), La La Land (2016), Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), Green Book (2018), Jojo Rabbit (2019), Nomadland (2020), Belfast (2021) and American Fiction (2023).
TIFF starts the Thursday night after Labour Day (the first Monday in September in Canada) and lasts for eleven days. The 2024 Toronto International Film Festival took place from September 5 through 15, 2024. The 2025 Toronto International Film Festival took place from September 4 through 14, 2025.
Background The Toronto International Film Festival was first launched as the Toronto Festival of Festivals, collecting the best films from other film festivals around the world and showing them to eager audiences in Toronto. Founded by Bill Marshall, Dusty Cohl, and Henk Van der Kolk, the inaugural event took place from October 18 through 24, 1976. That first year, 31,500 filmgoers watched 155 feature films from 30 countries presented in ten programmes. TIFF was once centred on the Yorkville neighbourhood, but, following the closure of the University Theatre in 1986, which had been used for the nightly gala presentations, the festival moved downtown to the Toronto Entertainment District, with most galas initially being held at the Ryerson Theatre and the closing night gala at Roy Thomson Hall. TIFF is known for the celebrity buzz it brings to the area with international media setting up near its restaurants and stores for photos and interviews with the stars. In 2010, TIFF opened its permanent headquarters, TIFF Lightbox, a year-round home for the appreciation of film in the heart of downtown Toronto, although TIFF films are still screened at a wider variety of venues, including the Scotiabank Theatre Toronto, rather than exclusively at the Lightbox.
TIFF has grown, steadily adding initiatives throughout the years. TIFF Cinematheque (formerly Cinematheque Ontario) and the Film Reference Library (FRL) opened in 1990. The TIFF Kids International Film Festival (formerly Sprockets) launched in 1998.Brad Wheeler, "TIFF kids' film festival salutes pioneer in stop-motion animation". The Globe and Mail, April 7, 2016. Film Circuit began exhibiting independent and Canadian films in under-serviced cities across Canada in 1994.
The festival also organizes the TIFF Film Circuit, a program which partners with local organizations in other Canadian towns and cities to present screenings of films that have previously been shown at TIFF.
In May 2024, TIFF announced that it will launch a full film market in 2026.Jeremy Kay, "Toronto film festival to launch official market in 2026". Screen Daily, May 16, 2024.
Leadership Throughout its history, TIFF has had numerous periods when the same individual served as both a head of the festival and the parent organization. Other times, the positions have diverged. It also has had co-directors at some times.
Festival Director After the founding, Wayne Clarkson became festival director in 1978, when it was still known as the Toronto Festival of Festivals.Jay Scott, "Festival of Festivals gets a new look". The Globe and Mail, April 7, 1978. In 1986, the founder of the Vancouver International Film Festival, Leonard Schein, became festival director, but resigned after just one festival cycle. Deputy director Helga Stephenson was elevated as interim head of the organization before taking over the position permanently in 1987."Toronto film festival elevates interim director to top position". Toronto Star, December 20, 1986.
In 1994, Piers Handling became the festival's director, as well as CEO, which was an unusually powerful combination. In 2004, Noah Cowan became co-director of TIFF. Longtime programmer Cameron Bailey succeeded Cowan as co-director in 2007 when Cowan became the artistic director of the newly opened TIFF Lightbox,
In 2018, upon her ascent as executive director, Joana Vicente also became co-director of the festival.
CEO and Executive Director Piers Handling was the first official CEO starting in 1994, a position he held until 2018, when he was succeeded by Joana Vicente as the top business executive. Vicente served as executive director and co-head of the organization. Vicente left in 2021 to run the Sundance Institute and Cameron Bailey was elevated to be singular CEO of TIFF in 2021.
Bailey became the artistic director of the Toronto International Film Festival, as well as TIFF Lightbox's year round programming."Cameron Bailey named artistic director of Toronto International Film Festival" . National Post, March 14, 2012.
Current Leadership As of 2026, in addition to Bailey, the leadership of the organization includes Anita Lee as chief of programming, Jennifer Frees as chief business officer, Charles Tremblay as head of market, Judy Lung as head of communications and strategy.
History The festival was founded in 1976 at the Windsor Arms Hotel by Bill Marshall, Henk Van der Kolk and Dusty Cohl. Beginning as a collection of the best-regarded films from film festivals around the world, it had an inaugural attendance of 35,000. Ironically, however, Hollywood studios withdrew their submissions from TIFF due to concerns that Toronto audiences would be too parochial for their feature releases.
In 1978, the festival first began billing itself as "the Toronto International Film Festival" as a supplementary name, although it retained Festival of Festivals as its primary branding.Jay Scott, "Festival of Festivals gets a new look". The Globe and Mail, April 7, 1978. At the same time it moved from the Harbour Castle Hotel to the Plaza II, and Wayne Clarkson replaced Marshall as the festival director. The number of galas increased from one to two per night and the Canadian Film Awards were incorporated into the festival.
The Festival of Festivals name was dropped in 1994, with the event becoming known exclusively as the Toronto International Film Festival at that time."Toronto film festival changes name". The Globe and Mail, February 10, 1994. From 1994 to 2009, the umbrella organization running TIFF was named "Toronto International Film Festival Group" (TIFFG). In 2009, the umbrella organization TIFFG was renamed to TIFF.
In 2001, Perspective Canada, the programme that had focused on Canadian films since 1984, was replaced by two programmes: Canada First!, a forum for Canadian filmmakers presenting their first feature-length work, featuring eight to 15 films, and Short Cuts Canada, which includes 30-40 Canadian short films. As of 2015, Canadian films are now simply included alongside international films in the other film programs rather than being grouped as a dedicated Canadian film stream.In 2004, TIFF was featured as the site of murder mystery in the film Jiminy Glick in Lalawood, a comedy film starring Martin Short.
In 2007, it was announced that the organization generates an estimated annual impact of $67 million CAD. By 2011, that benefit had grown to $170 million CAD.
In 2016, 397 films from 83 countries were screened at 28 screens in downtown Toronto venues, welcoming an estimated 480,000 attendees, over 5,000 of whom were industry professionals.
In 2017, TIFF reduced the number of films screened compared to the 2016 festival with 255 feature-length films in 2017, and also eliminated two venues that had been used in prior years.
In 2019, it was reported that due to a request from its owner, Cineplex Entertainment, no TIFF films distributed by subscription video-on-demand services (specifically Amazon Video and Netflix) are being screened at Scotiabank Theatre—which has been considered the "primary" venue of the festival.
The 2020 edition was both in-person and virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the virtual platform provided by Shift72. The film screenings were initially declared as "masks optional", a decision that drew criticism for creating a potential superspreader event as the social nature of the festival could increase the risk for COVID-19 transmission. The festival reversed the decision within 24 hours, citing a surge of new cases in Ontario, and made masks mandatory at the physical screenings.
The 2020 festival also saw the introduction of Industry Selects, an ad hoc film market for films seeking commercial distribution. Due to the pandemic, which prevented members of the North American film industry from travelling to international film festivals where many of the Industry Selects films were screened, they were available on the festival's industry platform, but not on the commercial platform for the general public.Jeremy Kay, "‘After Love’, ‘Saint-Narcisse’, among 30 sales titles to join TIFF industry roster". Screen Daily, September 1, 2020. Introduced at the time as a temporary measure due to the pandemic,Kelly Townsend, "TIFF reveals titles for Industry Selects distinction". Playback, September 2, 2020. it was converted into a permanent part of the TIFF program in 2022, and became the nucleus of the festival's plans to launch a full film market in 2026.Scott Roxborough and Etan Vlessing, "Toronto Festival to Launch Film Market". The Hollywood Reporter, May 16, 2024.
Notable film premieres Films such as American Beauty, Ray, Mr. Nobody, 127 Hours, Black Swan, Disobedience, The Five Obstructions, Singapore Sling, I Am Love and The Fabelmans have premiered at TIFF. Jamie Foxx's portrayal of Ray Charles ultimately won him the Academy Award for Best Actor while Slumdog Millionaire went on to win eight Oscars at the 2009 Academy Awards. Precious, which won the 2009 TIFF People's Choice Award, went on to win two Oscars at the 82nd Academy Awards. The King's Speech, the winner of the 2010 TIFF People's Choice Award, won four Oscars at the 83rd Academy Awards, while Silver Linings Playbook, the winner of the 2012 TIFF People's Choice Award, went on to win the Academy Award for Best Actress for Jennifer Lawrence. In 2019, the festival opened with Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band, the first time the festival ever opened with a Canadian documentary film.
Many Hollywood studios premiere their films in Toronto due to TIFF's easy-going non-competitive nature, relatively inexpensive costs (when compared to European festivals), eager film-fluent audiences and convenient timing.
TIFF Lightbox
In 2007, the Festival Group began construction on TIFF Lightbox, a new facility at the corner of King and John Streets in downtown Toronto, on land donated by Ivan Reitman and family. The million facility was sponsored by Bell Canada, with additional support from the Government of Ontario and Government of Canada.