Sydney Sweeney, Angelina Jolie & Vince Vaughn Movies

“Cautiously optimistic” is how one seller characterizes the prospective acquisition landscape as the 50th Toronto Film Festival kicks off Thursday with starry indies featuring Chris Evans, James McAvoy, Vince Vaughn, Amanda Seyfried, Angelina Jolie and Sydney Sweeney.

An abundance of product isn’t the problem coming out of Venice and Telluride and segueing into TIFF, rather it’s the fastidiousness of buyers when it comes to assessing their own means of success.

In other words, streamers are obsessed with their audience retention to cost ratio analytics, metrics that change constantly. But they do adore a great awards contender.

Meanwhile, theatrical distributors are constantly assessing whether a title is worth the P&A spend to ROI in what is a glacial recovering post-Covid box office.

This is further expounded by streamers’ varying wants: Apple has infrequently bought in recent festivals opting to create content in-house, while Amazon prefers overseas rights. Netflix’s most recent acquisition mandate, we hear, is buying global rights. That said, the streamer laid down $20 million for U.S. and partial offshore rights to Richard Linklater’s Hit Man and $11M for Anna Kendrick’s Woman of the Hour at TIFF 2023.

One conundrum that lingers in the marketplace is that some indie theatrical distributors are without a pay-one deal/streaming partner, and the subset that’s willing to pony up — sellers cite Hulu, HBO Max and Starz — is quite small and capped in cash. That said, there are plenty of theatrical distributors already armed with an SVOD deal, e.g., Sony Pictures Classics (Netflix), Searchlight (Hulu), Focus Features (Peacock), Neon (Hulu) and A24 (HBO Max), putting them in a feasible position to make a go at a title.

It’s not all bad out there; in fact, it’s arguably getting better. There’s an excitement from sellers about the new buyers in this fall’s film festival marketplace, i.e., burgeoning distributors such as Black Bear Finance and Row K backed by Media Capital Technologies and led by former Paramount Global Distribution and Marketing boss Megan Colligan.

The new David Ellison-led Paramount has publicly expressed its M.O. to build a feature slate of 15 releases next year and 20 annually in the future.

After making an earthquake at Cannes with its $24 million pickup of the Jennifer Lawrence movie Die, My Love, all eyes remain on Mubi’s next big buy at TIFF. Sellers are telling Deadline that the streamer-turned-theatrical distributor is eyeing more commercial fare after making a name for itself in the specialty space.

The solid sales pitch is that if you’re a streamer or motion picture distributor, it’s a thriftier prospect to buy finished product than to mount an original production. As far as buyers go, if there’s a critically acclaimed potential awards title, they’ll quickly make room for it, like last fall’s Venice Film Festival premiere The Brutalist from director Brady Corbet and his wife, producer/screenwriter Mona Fastvold: A24 acquired U.S. for $10M-$15M and dated it promptly for a December launch. With a $16.4M domestic take, 10 Oscar nominations (including Best Picture) and three wins including Best Actor for Adrien Brody, The Brutalist was by far one of the few theatrical acquisition successes from last year’s fall film festival troika. (Corbet and Fastvold are back this year, with the latter in the director’s seat this time, for the bawdy Shaker origins movie The Testament of Ann Lee, starring Seyfried. The pic world premiered at Venice to a great Rotten Tomatoes critics score of 85% fresh and will be playing TIFF.) Another A24 TIFF acquisition last year, the Paul Rudd comedy Friendship, for which the distributor paid mid-seven figures, generated $16.2M stateside.

Festival reviews for these indie sales titles are like a Roman emperor’s thumb edict in the Colosseum. Great reviews of course boost a pic’s cost and expedite its prospects for the immediate awards season. Despite having an Oscar-winning director in Ron Howard and a starry cast of Sweeney, Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby and Ana de Armas, last year’s Eden at TIFF received lackluster reviews, which slowed the pic’s path to finding a distribution home. Vertical saved the movie with a distribution deal for the AGC Studios-backed title, and Eden finally hit theaters close to a year after world premiering here.

RELATED: Venice Film Festival 2025: Read All Of Deadline’s Reviews

Even though tonight’s opening-night film, the Colin Hanks-directed documentary John Candy: I Like Me, already has a distributor in Amazon MGM Studios, all eyes are on whether the Venice momentum for the Ben Foster and Shailene Woodley cop thriller Motor City from director Potsy Ponciroli can continue at TIFF tonight. What makes this title an intriguing piece of cinema? It’s a gangster thriller with hardly any dialogue.

Sellers have redefined their idea of success post-pandemic: the days of overpriced acquisition deals hatched overnight are a thing of the past. Nowadays, success for an indie title doesn’t mean selling during the run of the fest or even in a mid-seven-figure range. It took two months for Sundance’s biggest world premiere, the Jennifer Lopez musical Kiss of the Spider Woman, to find distribution at Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate, with LD Entertainment handling the pic’s P&A. The feature adaptation of the mid-1990s Broadway musical is getting an awards-season push and opening in theaters October 10.

Here are other TIFF 2025 titles often mentioned to Deadline by buyers and sellers, with world premiere screening information (all times ET):

CALIFORNIA SCHEMIN’ – James McAvoy’s feature directorial debut is based on a true story about two Scottish lads from Dundee who conned the music industry by pretending to be an established Californian rap duo. Cast includes Séamus McLean Ross, Samuel Bottomley, Lucy Halliday, Rebekah Murrell and McAvoy. UTA Independent Film Group is selling North American; international sales is Bankside Films. World premiere: Saturday, Sept. 6, TIFF Lightbox, 3 p.m.

CHARLIE HARPER – The feature directorial debut of Tom Dean is a romance starring Emilia Jones and Nick Robinson and produced by Temple Hill, as well as Patrick Wachsberger’s 193. Logline: Propelled by their move to a vibrant new city, Charlie and Harper navigate young love, purpose, and partnership. UTA Independent Film Group is repping U.S. sales; Picture Perfect Federation is repping overseas. World premiere: Thursday, Sept. 4, TIFF Lightbox, 3 p.m.

THE CHRISTOPHERS – Steven Soderbergh returns to TIFF with a movie about the children of a once famous artist (Ian McKellen) who hire a forger (Michaela Coel) to complete some unfinished, long ago abandoned canvases so they’ll have an inheritance when he dies. CAA Media Finance is handling U.S. sales. World premiere: Sunday, Sept. 7, Princess of Wales, 6:30 p.m.

CHRISTY – The David Michôd-directed biopic about the rise of female 1990s boxing champ Christy Martin (Sweeney) under the guidance of trainer and manager-turned-husband (Ben Foster). Merritt Wever and Katy O’Brian star. UTA Film Independent Group, Black Bear and AC Independent are repping U.S. sales; Black Bear has international. World premiere: Friday, Sept. 5, Princess of Wales, 2 p.m.

COUTURE – Writer-director Alice Wincour’s feature stars Jolie performing in French as a filmmaker whose life intersects with that of a model and a make-up artist during Paris Fashion Week. Ella Rumpf, Anyier Anei and Louis Garrel star. UTA Independent Film Group is handling U.S. sales; HanWay has international. World premiere: Sunday, Sept. 7, Princess of Wales, 3:15 p.m.

DEAD MAN’S WIRE – The Gus Van Sant-directed movie about the real-life Tony Kiritsis, who in February 1977 entered the office of Richard Hall, president of the Meridian Mortgage Company, and took him hostage with a sawed-off shotgun connected by a “dead man’s wire” from the trigger to Tony’s own neck. Bill Skarsgård, Colman Domingo, Al Pacino, Dacre Montgomery, Myha’la and Cary Elwes star. WME Independent is handling U.S. and International, with Elevated co-repping on the latter. The pic world premiered at Venice to a 13 1/2-minute ovation. TIFF premiere: Sunday, Sept. 7, Princess of Wales, noon.

EASY’S WALTZ – Vaughn is expected to be a knockout in his turn as a middle-aged lounge singer who gets the opportunity for a second act when he grabs the attention of an old-school manager at the Wynn played by Pacino. He’ll be forced to confront his own attachment to failure while trying to rescue his brother (Simon Rex), whose downward spiral threatens this last chance for redemption. Kate Mara, Cobie Smulders, Shania Twain and Mary Steenburgen also star in the movie written and directed by True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto. WME, CAA Media Finance and Range Select are co-repping U.S. and international. World premiere: Thursday, Sept. 11, Princess of Wales, 6:30 p.m.

ETERNAL RETURN – Naomi Scott plays Cass, a woman who has come to a personal point of emotional invulnerability until she meets Virgil (Kit Harington), a cartographer. Along with his partner Malcolm (Simon Callow), the pair will attempt to travel back in time to awaken Cass to love again. CAA Media Finance and Range Select are handling U.S. sales; Lakeshore/UMG has international. World premiere: Monday, Sept. 8, Princess of Wales, 11:30 a.m.

FUZE – David Mackenzie, who had Relay at TIFF last year which sold to Bleecker Street, is back with Fuze starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Theo James, Saffron Hocking, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Elham Ehsas and Sam Worthington. Pic’s blurb: Central London is thrown into panic by the discovery of an unexploded WWII bomb on a construction site. Amidst the chaos of an evacuation, a gang of criminals begins an audacious heist. UTA Independent Group, WME Independent and Anton are repping U.S. sales; Anton has international. World premiere: Friday, Sept. 5, Roy Thomson Hall, 9:30 p.m.

MOTOR CITY – The $30M action movie from filmmaker Potsy Ponciroli from producers Greg Silverman and Jon Berg is set in 1970s Detroit, where a working class romantic is framed by a ruthless gangster after falling for his girlfriend. After years in prison, he returns with only one mission: revenge. Pic stars Alan Ritchson, Ben Foster, Pablo Schreiber, Lionel Boyce, Amar Chadha-Patel, Ben McKenzie and Woodley. WME Independent and Range Select are handling U.S. sales; Black Bear has international. Pic world premiered at Venice. TIFF premiere: Thursday, Sept. 4, TIFF Lightbox, 8:45 p.m.

NORMAL – Ben Wheatley is a TIFF regular with movies like Tom Hiddleston’s High-Rise and the Brie Larson shoot-’em-up Free Fire, and he’s back in Midnight Madness with one from the Nobody crew of scribe Derek Kolstad and star Bob Odenkirk. The latter plays Ulysses, a substitute sheriff in a small, forgotten town who responds to a bank robbery, only to unknowingly uncover something far more explosive. WME Independent is repping U.S. and international. World premiere: Sunday, Sept. 7, Royal Alexandra Theatre, 11:59 p.m.

POETIC LICENSE – The movie is the feature directorial debut of Euphoria star Maude Apatow, produced by dad Judd Apatow and starring mom Leslie Mann along with Cooper Hoffman, Andrew Barth Feldman, Nico Parker, Martha Kelly, Maisy Stella, Will Price and Cliff “Method Man” Smith. Pic follows a middle-aged mother, Liz, as she becomes the unexpected point of tension between Sam and Ari, two inseparable best friends and college seniors. WME Independent is repping U.S. World premiere: Saturday, Sept. 6, Royal Alexandra Theatre, 5:15 p.m.

RETREAT – Writer-director Ted Evans’ thriller takes place in an isolated deaf community, whereby protag Matt’s idyllic world cracks when Eva arrives, making him question his identity and the costs of maintaining his supposedly utopian society. Sophie Stone, Anne Zander, James Boyle and Ace Mahbaz star. XYZ Films is handling sales. World premiere: Monday, Sept. 8, TIFF Lightbox, 11:15 a.m.

SACRIFICE – Romain Gavras’ English-language debut stars Chris Evans, Anya Taylor-Joy, Vincent Cassel, Salma Hayek Pinault, John Malkovich, Ambika Mod, Charli XCX and Jonatan “Yung Lean” Leandoer. In the movie, a star-studded charity event turns chaotic when a radical group crashes it, seeking a mystical artifact tied to an ancient prophecy. CAA Media Finance is repping U.S.; Rocket Science has international. World premiere: Saturday, Sept. 6, Princess of Wales, 9:30 p.m.

THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE – After a Venice world premiere where it nabbed a 15 1/2-minute ovation and 85% Rotten Tomatoes critics score, the Mona Fastvold-directed movie stars Seyfried as Ann Lee, the founding leader of the edgy Shaker movement. CAA Media Finance is repping U.S.; Charade has international. TIFF premiere: Tuesday, Sept. 9, TIFF Lightbox, 5:30 p.m.

TUNER – The feature directorial debut of documentary filmmaker Daniel Roher (Navalny) follows a gifted piano tuner’s meticulous skills for tuning pianos. This leads him to discover an unexpected aptitude for cracking safes, turning his life upside down. Roher co-wrote this thriller with Robert Ramsey. Leo Woodall and Dustin Hoffman star. This one world premiered at Telluride. WME Independent and UTA Independent Group have U.S. sales; Black Bear has international. TIFF premiere: Monday, Sept. 8, Princess of Wales, 2:45 p.m.

THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB – The Gaza drama received a record 23-minute ovation in Venice and looks forward to another rally here. The plot for the Kaouther Ben Hania-directed movie centers on Red Crescent volunteers who receive an emergency call: a 6-year old girl is trapped in a car under IDF fire in Gaza, pleading for rescue. While trying to keep her on the line, they do everything they can to get an ambulance to her. CAA Media Finance has U.S. film sales; Party Film Sales has international. TIFF premiere: Sunday, Sept. 7, TIFF Lightbox, 9:30 p.m.

THE WIZARD OF THE KREMLIN – After a world premiere in Venice, Olivier Assayas’ title starring Jude Law as Vladimir Putin makes it way to Toronto. In the pic that also stars Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright and Alicia Vikander, a young Russian filmmaker becomes an unlikely advisor to Putin as the latter rises to power in post-Soviet Russia. CAA Media Finance and Gaumont are co-repping U.S., with the latter on international. TIFF premiere: Wednesday, Sept. 10, Princess of Wales, 5:30 p.m.