Basner and Sutherland lay out indie sales playbook at TIFF

The playbook for selling independent films now expires every two weeks.

That was the warning from Roeg Sutherland, Co-Head of Media Finance at talent agency CAA, during a joint session with Glen Basner, chief executive of FilmNation Entertainment, at TIFF: The Market, as reported by Deadline on 12 September 2026. Sutherland said sellers once reset their thinking every six months. The market now moves too fast for that.

The two men are longtime collaborators, according to Screen Daily, and led a session listed by TIFF as PERSPECTIVES The Global Sales Playbook. TIFF describes Basner and Sutherland as sales heavyweights and says the session covers evolving cinema networks, meaning the changing ways films reach theatres around the world. In simple terms, global sales is the business of raising money for films made outside the big studios and then selling them country by country.

Basner used the session to criticise the old independent habit, as reported by Deadline. He said distributors too often built packages, a star plus a director plus a script, mainly to limit risk through early sales to pay television and streamers. That method can get a film funded. It does not necessarily get people off the sofa.

His answer was direct. Make films that compel people to see them in a movie theatre first, Basner said, and they will then work on home video, pay TV and free television. He also predicted that 2027 will be a great year at the theatrical box office, a forecast reported by Deadline.

For audiences, this means the argument is about priorities. One route starts with what broadcasters and platforms will pay for. The other starts with what will pull a crowd on a Friday night, with television and streaming to follow.

The exchange took place as part of a wider push in Toronto. TIFF: The Market aims to become an official market expanding beyond film to serve as a one-stop shop for buying and selling television, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The summit line-up also includes Seth Rogen, Danny Boyle and Colman Domingo, as well as film-makers Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar and analyst Stephen Follows, according to Variety.