The Venice Film Festival, which concluded last Saturday, pushed other international cinema events to launch after taking the necessary prevention measures required in the coronavirus era.
The Toronto International Film Festival kicked off its 2020 version few days ago with a hybrid solution that offer both indoor and outdoor shows, the German News Agency reported.
TIFF has put limits on in-person screenings and employed drive-ins and an outdoor theater.
In normal times, TIFF is a grand showcase of big-budget Hollywood fare, art-house films, experimental work, documentaries, shorts and TV series.
Studios use it to publicize soon-to-be-released movies, journalists and executives get a peek at what's ahead and distributors get to witness how a representative North American audience reacts to a film.
If Toronto loves it, chances are big box-office returns or award gold will follow. This 45th edition, though, is a grim reminder of the current state of a shaken industry, with its paucity of blockbusters, and shift to virtual viewing.
According to Bloomberg, TIFF, which runs through September 19, is showing about 60 features this year compared with 245 last year.
Organizers had to make tough decisions about how to proceed this year amid persistent uncertainties, including travel restrictions and changing public health protocols.
Producers were skittish about committing to open at a festival with their final release plans uncertain.
"We've been working since March on plans for a festival that we knew had to be very different. We've all re-examined what film is, what the industry is, what film culture is all about," Bloomberg cited Cameron Bailey, TIFF's artistic director and co-head as saying in a phone interview.
As crunch-time loomed, organizers chose something between Venice's response of keeping many of its proceedings in live events and Telluride decision to cancel its whole affair, only announcing the titles it would have featured, much like Cannes did earlier this year.
Toronto has limited in-person screenings to socially distanced affairs at its main venue, TIFF Bell Lightbox, and three drive-ins, while also showing films at an outdoor theater.
To conquer the dim star-wattage problem, TIFF conscripted "ambassadors" like Nicole Kidman and Martin Scorsese to support the festival, mainly from afar.
The types of films also changed. There's a greater emphasis on showcasing work by women, which make up almost half of this year's slate, and movies with social-justice themes, Bailey said.
