How TIFF Highlighted Streamers’ Prestige Film Push
The latest Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), which ran Sept. 9-18, served as a strong reminder of just how prominent video streamers’ prestige film awards chases have become.
Just look back at the representation that Netflix and Prime Video had in the lineup at TIFF, one of the major fall film festivals that’s looked to as a bellwether for the awards season.
Amazon’s documentary “Burning” and drama “The Mad Women’s Ball” saw their world premieres at TIFF, while the company’s drama “The Electrical Life of Louis Wain” (starring Benedict Cumberbatch) had its Canadian/U.K. premiere at the festival.
Meanwhile, Netflix dramas “The Starling” (starring Melissa McCarthy), “The Power of the Dog” (Benedict Cumberbatch) and “The Guilty” (Jake Gyllenhaal) screened at TIFF, with the latter film having its world premiere at the festival.
Sure, not all the films previously mentioned received equal praise. “The Starling” has received particularly harsh reviews thus far, for example.
But the films that have been well received, such as both Benedict Cumberbatch starrers, serve as the latest suggestion that it’s only a matter of time before a film distributed by a video streaming service wins the Best Picture Oscar.
Variety film awards editor Clayton Davis last Thursday included “The Power of the Dog” and “The Electrical Life of Louis Wain” in his list of predicted 2022 Best Picture Oscar contenders, for example.
And being in the Oscar race benefits streamers in many ways besides furthering chances of becoming the first SVOD to win Best Picture.
For one, winning major awards like an Oscar boosts the attractiveness of their film operations and could make recruiting high-profile directors and actors for future projects easier.
Second is what these prestige films can do for the brand of streamers like Netflix and Prime Video, even if their arthouse films don’t win major awards.
Films like “The Power of the Dog” and “The Electrical Life of Louis Wain” (currently at over a 90% and 80% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, respectively), even sans Oscar nods, better position Netflix and Amazon to battle notions that they chase quantity at the expense of quality because of the positive critical reception they receive.
Some consumers likely feel that way toward Netflix and Prime Video because of the sheer number of films in their catalogs. Netflix and Prime Video had about 3,700 and 10,100 movies in their U.S. catalogs, respectively, as of May 2021. Compare that with roughly 700 films for Paramount+ and the 600 Showtime counted, per Ampere Analysis.
Sure, big film counts mean Netflix and Prime Video have some of the most well stocked catalogs of critically acclaimed films. But that also suggests Netflix and Prime Video have some of the biggest catalogs of poorly reviewed films.
Streamers are always keeping an eye out for hidden gems to scoop up at film festivals, but TIFF dealmaking was relatively quiet this year. For example, while news of Netflix picking up TIFF films “Bruised” ($20 million), “Pieces of a Woman” and “Malcolm & Marie” ($30 million) broke before the festival ended last year, there has yet to be any news of Netflix (or other streamers) making similar high-profile purchases from this year’s TIFF offering.
This could partially be due to the 2021 TIFF market offering. “The big difference in Toronto this year is there aren’t as many finished films available for acquisition,” said J.J. Caruth, president of domestic marketing and distribution at Highland Film Group.
Also not to be forgotten is that many films had picked up distribution from streamers prior to showing at TIFF.
A few festival films won’t significantly change the ratio of critically acclaimed films to flops in the catalogs of Prime Video and Netflix, but they still can give something critically acclaimed for consumers to associate with those SVODs.
And that type of brand boost could lead to more Netflix and Prime Video subs to give each streamer's original films a shot, which is something the companies would be thankful for as they ramp up their content spending in 2021.