TIFF's New Market Beats Target With 6,800 Delegates in Year One
Toronto's new film market has beaten its own target in its first year, drawing 6,800 industry delegates compared with 5,000 last year.
Cameron Bailey, chief executive of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), and Charles Tremblay, head of TIFF: The Market, shared the figures with Deadline. That is a rise of more than a third.
It beat its own target. Bailey said the goal was to lift industry attendance from 5,000 to 6,000. It reached 6,800 instead.
TIFF: The Market is a content market, a deal-making hub where producers, sales agents, distributors and platforms meet to buy and sell films. Its first edition ran from 10 to 16 September 2026 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, according to TIFF. Bailey said the launch of the festival's first fully fledged market had been years in the making.
The blueprint was large. The programme listed 650 market screening slots, meaning showings reserved for buyers and press rather than public audiences. Organisers had expected around 120 exhibitors, meaning companies and stands selling films and services, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. The pair said federal government funding helped build the new operation.
The ambition goes further. Bailey said the plan is to double industry attendance within a few years.
Conference sessions drew familiar names. Speakers included actor-producer Seth Rogen, actor Gary Oldman, producer Robbie Brenner and Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group co-chair Pamela Abdy. For newcomers, those sessions mix practical shop talk with public conversation, with filmmakers and executives discussing how films get financed, sold and released.
The start was bumpy. The first edition opened with massive early queues after a fault in the ticketing system. Bailey and Tremblay acknowledged the snafu. Queues cleared, and the numbers kept climbing.
What makes this stand out is the scale of the jump. An extra 1,800 industry visitors means fuller screening rooms, busier meeting floors and more late-night negotiations. For fans, this means little right away. Films that sell in Toronto still face months of release planning before they reach a screen near you.
