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November 02, 2005
Toronto sets 2005 sales records but what about Montreal?
Reports Canada.com, the 2005 Toronto International Film Fest broke sales records: " Total film sales at this year's Toronto International Film Festival have been estimated at more than $52 million, including $29 million domestic and $23 million international, says festival co-director Noah Cowan.
"The results come from the Ontario Media Development Corp. sales office which conducted a survey of festival-accredited buyers and sellers. It is described as the most successful business activity in the history of the fest." The Globe and Mail tells a different tale of Montreal: "Organizers of this year's inaugural New Montreal FilmFest have written an open letter to the media stating that their festival, which ran just after Toronto's, was largely a failure. "The new Montreal festival "was not a success, particularly in terms of marketing and ticket sales, as well as the choice of theatres that were sometimes too big for films aimed at narrow audiences," the letter said. It was signed by the festival's board of directors, a who's who of insiders from major Quebec media companies... After Telefilm Canada and Quebec's La Société de développement des entreprises culturelles pulled their $1-million in funding from the Montreal World Film Festival last year -- due to the worsening relationship between the funding agencies and festival president Serge Losique -- an alliance of Quebec film-industry companies broached the idea of creating a new, large festival by merging with the other Montreal festivals. That failed to happen." [A little more background at the link.]
Posted by pride at November 2, 2005 01:21 PM