Toronto Film Festival 2020 takes virtual turn; Anurag Kashyap, Priyanka Chopra among ambassadors

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) will be a hybrid of physical screenings and virtual events because of this new pandemic reality. According to Variety, the mega event, TIFF unspools between September 10 through September 19 and will include screenings of roughly 50 films during its initial five days. The following plan is subject to approval by the city and provincial health officials.

Some of these films include Ammonite, directed by Francis Lee of God's Own Country renown; Another Round, from Danish auteur Thomas Vinterberg (Denmark); Concrete Cowboys, an adaptation of the novel Ghetto Cowboy from director Ricky Staub; Bruised, the directorial debut film of Oscar-winner Halle Berry (USA); and True Mothers by Japanese filmmaker Naomi Kawase. More titles will be announced over the summer.

TIFF generates more than 200 million USD in annual economic activity for Toronto and Ontario, which helped spur the festival's organisers to come up with a plan for operating safely during COVID-19.

However, other film festivals such as Tribeca or the New York Film Festival have been cancelled, postponed or reconstituted as virtual events.

TIFF, earlier this week, laid off 31 full-time staff positions because of closures related to COVID-19. The organisation said it expects there to be a 50 per cent reduction in revenue from 2019, putting a severe financial strain on its operations.

For the first time in its history, TIFF will launch a digital platform for the festival. Over the 10 days, the platform will host digital screenings, as well as numerous talks and special events.

Cameron Bailey, artistic director and co-head of TIFF said, "The pandemic has hit TIFF hard, but we've responded by going back to our original inspiration to bring the very best in the film to the broadest possible audience.

Our teams have had to rethink everything and open our minds to new ideas. In countless video calls over the past three months, we have rebuilt our festival for 2020 drawing on our five decades of commitment to strong curation, support for filmmakers and engagement with audiences.

"For its 45th year, TIFF will be welcoming 50 celebrated filmmakers and actors as TIFF ambassadors. It's a group that will include Ava DuVernay, Taika Waititi, Anurag Kashyap, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Nicole Kidman, Martin Scorsese, Nadine Labaki, Alfonso Cuaron, Riz Ahmed, Rian Johnson, Jason Reitman, Isabelle Huppert and Claire Denis.

Joana Vicente, executive director and co-head of TIFF said, "We could never have anticipated the global seismic changes we would be facing in 2020. We tapped into the original spirit of the Festival from when it began in 1976 as our guiding light. The distilled edition of TIFF 2020 reflects a deep love of film, passion for our loyal audiences, commitment to the industry and a whole lot of heart."