Toronto International Film Festival targets younger audience with independent premieres

TORONTO: The Toronto International Film Festival aims to attract a younger audience who are primarily interested in works outside of mainstream Hollywood by shifting the focus to independent films, the festival’s chief programming officer said.

The festival returns for its 51st edition on Thursday with close to 300 films, at a time when studio-backed big-budget movies have taken a backseat, as they did in Venice and Cannes this year.

“I think for us as a festival, we really are seeing a very significant demographic shift, and younger audiences coming back to cinema, and younger audiences really seeking content, cinema experiences also outside of just mainstream offerings,” Anita Lee, chief programming officer at TIFF, told Reuters.

Lee said TIFF wants to “meet the moment” with that in focus.

“I do think it also speaks to a younger audience that’s coming of age as a very global audience, much more familiar… with films and cinema from across the world,” she said.

Among the films premiering at the festival are “Rescue,” a documentary film by Sine Plambech exploring the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean, and Afsaneh Salari’s “Tehran, Under the Skin,” which looks at Iran’s beauty industry even as a conflict with the U.S. and Israel lurks in the background.

Alex Gibney’s marathon documentary on the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival, will mark its North American debut. Musk has Canadian citizenship.

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Lee is looking forward to the Canadian premiere of “Elsinore,” in which Andrew Scott portrays the late Scottish actor Ian Charleson’s struggle through AIDS.

The world premiere of director Peter Farrelly’s “I Play Rocky” — recreating the story of how Sylvester Stallone got the eponymous film produced — and the North American launch of South Korean director Lee Chang-dong’s drama “Possible Love” are also highly anticipated, she said.

The festival will lay the red carpet for stars such as Penelope Cruz, Seth Rogen, Naomi Watts, Courteney Cox and Helen Mirren.

TIFF chose Oscar-winning director Sian Heder’s “Being Heumann” as the opening film, starring Ruth Madeley as disability rights activist Judy Heumann. The 11-day festival will end on September 20.

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Festival slate reflective of the world

The annual event has not been immune to criticism, with screenings of documentaries on Israel and Russia facing protests in recent years.

Lee highlighted that the films and the stories chosen for the festival are reflective of the world today, which she said would invariably invite scrutiny.

“We cannot escape the fact that currently we are living in very complex geopolitical times,” she said.

“It’s something that we balance, where we want to be a festival and a place that supports dialogue, that is actually able to coexist and reflect the world around us, but at the same time always put the film, the art, and the actual filmmakers at the heart of what we do,” she said.