I’m being told certain distributors and have either pulled their films out of the 2021 edition of the Toronto Film Festival or are seriously thinking about doing it. Jeffrey Wells posted the story based on my intel a few hours ago.
The gist of the cause for this TIFF meltdown seems to derive from the plain fact that the major studios are hesitant in adhering to the digital components that Toronto has in store this year. The Telluride and Venice festivals, unlike Toronto, will not be doing streaming, and that’s obviously something that turns most big title owners off.
Right now, Canadian government is being extremely cautious about the new Delta strain of COVID-19, which, who knows, could be an issue for other festivals this fall as well. Despite high rates of vaccination, there are still plenty of Canadians, Americans and Europeans hesitant in getting vaccinated.
Jeremy Saulnier’s mysterious A24 project, formerly “October,” still has no release date. You’d think, given that it has been in post-production for almost a year now.