Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, Venice and Telluride have all had their turn. Now, it’s time for the global cinema spotlight to shine on the Toronto International Film Festival. For artistic director Cameron Bailey each year is an adventure as the Canadian institution programs one of the largest slates of films in the world (this year’s festival topped out at 255 feature length films).
Bailey, who has been in his current position since 2012, has the unique responsibility of programming not only a wide number of films looking for commercial distribution (TIFF’s acquisition market is arguably on par with Sundance depending on the year), but awards season films either looking for a major world premiere gala or another opportunity to show their wares.
Some of TIFF’s exclusive premieres this year include “The Current War” with Benedict Cumberbatch, “Breathe” with Andrew Garfield, “I, Tonya” with Margot Robbie and “Kings” with Halle Berry.
Notable films that screened at other festivals but are making their TIFF debut are “Call Me By Your Name” and “Mudbound” from Sundance; Cannes standouts “The Square,” “120 Beats Per Minute,” “The Florida Project” and “Killing of a Sacred Deer”; Venice selections “The Shape of Water,” “Suburbicon,” “Downsizing,” “mother!” and “Victoria & Abdul”; and Telluride players “Battle of the Sexes,” “Darkest Hour” and “Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool.”
The former film critic took a few minutes last week to discuss this year’s slate, the Netflix quandary, how quickly political events impact narrative cinema and more.
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Gregory Ellwood: Hey Cameron. How are you doing?
Cameron Bailey: I’m good, how are you?
I’m doing pretty good. I’m sure you’ve heard its crazy hot in L.A. but we’re surviving.
You’re surviving. Well, no floods at least.
Exactly. No fires, no floods or earthquakes yet. We’re all good beyond that. But let’s talk about TIFF. Is this the calm before the storm? Is this a slight break for you?
You know it’s a different stage, it’s not quite a break. But the longest hours are over until the festival itself starts. Once we lock the lineup and the schedule then we’re into just logistics and planning and there’s lots of sort of unpredictable things that come up every day, but you know, you’re not here late and you kinda know what’s coming and then it all starts next Thursday.
Beyond the actual festival itself, is there one time of year that you enjoy the most? Is it the anticipation of it all? Is it traveling the world watching hundreds of films?
I think apart from the festival itself, it’s almost when we’re starting over. There is an element of this process that’s like an expedition. You know, you’re setting out someplace you don’t always know where you’re going to end up. We begin traveling in the winter. We go to Sundance, we go to Berlin, I make a trip to LA, to New York, and to London and Paris all between January and May and that’s when the festival is still just a concept. We don’t what the films are going to be, we don’t know much about what’s going to come our way but we’re just talking. We begin to hear from filmmakers and companies that bring us the films, and that’s when you begin to get a sense that, ‘Oh, this is gonna be an amazing year.’ Or this filmmaker has a new film or here’s someone I’ve never heard of before but it sounds like it’s going to be exciting. So, when it’s all that potential, that’s when it’s the most exciting, apart from the festival itself.