TIFF and the Big Red Dog
Paramount/eOneTIFF 2021 is right around the corner, and after a pandemic-miniaturised 2020 festival, signs of normalcy are returning. Since the Toronto International Film Festival came into its own as an annual worldwide destination for the film community, it's been considered the 'People's Festival' and has been one of the top-attended film festivals by the movie-going public – if not, in fact, number one. The festival's big prize, The People's Choice Award, is selected by average cinema-loving film folk – not industry types, not even film peers. With its focus on international cinema, Canadian filmmakers, genre appreciation, and artistic discovery, TIFF has remained consistent over the years in delivering its mandate of supporting the independent and artistic film community. And cinephiles have always been welcomed to reside and participate in this community, too.
Since the late 90s, TIFF's early September date, promotional capacity, and direct access to actual filmgoers' opinions has made it into a significant bellwether for Oscar glory. Over the past 25 years, TIFF has sniffed out nominees and winners for Oscar's Best Picture, Best Actress & Actor, Best Documentaries, and Best Foreign Language Films with regularity. Many of these lauded films and individual artists entered TIFF as unknowns or under-the-radar entities, yet these ten special days in September have been transformative for many careers and film life cycles. As per festival culture in general, TIFF just doesn't house the big studio films. Transformers’, GI Joe’s, and Pixar’s don't have a strong historical festival presence. They're already rich in identifiable branding and possible tentpole marketability. TIFF has been a place for small- and medium-sized films to come and possibly grow their profile, potential audience, and shelf-life.
Hollywood, of course, has AirBnB'ed at TIFF for decades, but they've mostly been casual attendees. However, with TIFF's magic elevating the financial and award success of films like Bowling for Columbine, Tsotsi, Juno, Whale Rider, Slumdog Millionaire, and so many others, Hollywood has begun engaging with TIFF differently, much more proactively. Bigger studio films have been appearing in the Gala and Special Presentation programmes for years now, as studios use TIFF as a chance to force their films into the Academy Award discussion. TIFF's programmes have expanded over the years to accommodate this industry push for possible awards and Top-Ten list prestige. In 2019, there were 55 entries in the Special Presentations programme, compared to 28 in 2002. The bigger Hollywood films bring more Hollywood stars, more red carpets, more publicity, and, inevitably, more money and attention.
Within the festival environment, TIFF's PR role as an Academy Awards prognosticator and prophecy maker has led to a gradual gentrification of the former 'Festival of Festivals'. There's more money around TIFF as it becomes a fancier and fancier place in an effort to accommodate the fancier and fancier film folks who visit the community each September. TIFF has still done well in serving Canadian and international independent films and in promoting the art form. That hasn't changed, but there is a trickle-down effect, to be sure, that falls onto the cinephiles because it is they who end up paying the bills associated with bringing film's greatest celebrities to Canada's largest city. Ticket prices have skyrocketed. Ticket packages for the proud, crazy cinema-goer – those with they nerdy appetite for three-plus films a day and the willingness to dodge sleep and skip meals to consume movies – include options for fewer films. And the whole ticketing system – for individual tickets, events, and packages alike – has become a game. Joe and Jane Public must now participate in a tiered, pay-to-play lottery system that favours platinum, gold, silver, and bronze members for first choice of screenings long before they get their turn to pick.
So with studios and big money attending the festival community, TIFF's PR machinery now gets hijacked to a degree by big films arriving in town whose objectives are to suck all the publicity oxygen out of the room. Unlike films such as the $6.5M USD-budgeted Juno, which generated its own swell of commercial and awards momentum in 2007 by being a good and earnest crowd-pleaser, films like The Goldfinch ($50M USD budget) and Ford v Ferrari ($97M USD budget) arrive annually to bully their way onto filmgoers' watchlists. So far, TIFF audiences have a pretty good track record sorting films by quality, but still it's discouraging to see bigger films trying to steal the limelight from the smaller guys. TIFF now regularly has those snobby rich kids coming to play in the sandbox just for a weekend's worth of attention. It's not really a fair dynamic, after all, as films like Ford v Ferrari already have distribution, healthy marketing budgets, and both box-office and streaming prospects. In an effort to give the 'big kids' a place to play, TIFF panders to studios because it brings attention to TIFF and to Toronto tourism. It's a mutually beneficial system at the corporate level. However, there are plenty of films out there that could use the TIFF boost that just don't get the access.
Enter this year's Clifford the Big Red Dog, which inexplicably was selected to have a gala presentation berth. It's not an obvious choice for TIFF, as its artistic merit as a project appears a little 'Smurfy'. As in the children's book series, a 5-metre tall, clumsy red dog and his adorable owner embark on a number of educational lessons. To fulfill a feature film's runtime, the Clifford motion picture experience apparently invokes adventure, provides good guys and villains, and introduces children to the sketchy morals of corporate genetic engineering. It's pretty weak stuff and smells somewhat of a cash grab effort inspired more by the money-making potential of Tom & Jerry or Paddington. It's certainly not a film planning a PR campaign for the upcoming awards season, and it's certainly not a small project that will struggle to get noticed. What it is, is a smug play by Paramount Pictures and eOne films to manufacture extra press for a film that already has a sizeable production budget, a marketing budget, and distribution channels. Clifford jumped up onto a seat at the TIFF table in order to gulp down as much publicity as it could.
This type of disdainful, cavalier behaviour by the rich kid (and his dog) in the room is already pretty bothersome. But then comes the report that Paramount and eOne have decided to pull Clifford from screening at TIFF. On the surface, it made for a tiny, oh-by-the-way entertainment news story. However, it speaks to an even larger disrespect that the established film industry players have for the work of film festivals. Not only did the big red dog force itself into the privileged position at the TIFF doggie bowl, shoving aside countless film-runts along the way who could have used the publicity nutrition, but now because of the convenience of its own box office release date targets – which many films at big festivals do not even have – they've decided to step away from the table. Say what you want about the delta variant, no one's disputing its potential devastating impact on theatrical attendance, including Clifford's. And no-one's suggesting that films slated for a fall 2021 release don't deserve sympathy if COVID devours their earnings potential. However, if Clifford’s producers are so fickle as to want to walk away from a festival debut because of the spacing between its premiere and release date, then it should never have been at TIFF anyway, especially during these volatile times in this industry. How many filmmakers would die to have a red-carpet at Roy Thomson Hall during the second full week of September? Paramount, eOne, and their big red mutt have done nothing but drop a big red turd on what TIFF is trying to do within and for the film community. TIFF in their years of growth have added another lane to their film throughway – one that allows screenings of bigger, better-financed, glitzy, big-budget fare to show off Hollywood films even though they don't really need the support – not really.
As for the community of cinephiles, the Clifford drama will no doubt have little impact. It's hard to imagine many film geeks caring about the suddenly open gala slot left by a corporate kids' movie based on a third-grade scholastic reader. However, the thing is that TIFF would already have engaged in countless logistical elements to have Clifford the Big Red Dog at the 2021 festival. They'd begun arranging screenings, accommodating Clifford's festival attendees and publishing materials. Dropping out in early August does not leave a lot of notice for TIFF to pivot its planning. In the future, as TIFF continues to court the rich glamour of studio films, they would do well to keep in mind the pet damage left by Clifford this year. Studios – some of them, at least – don't see the privilege that it is to attend primo international film festivals. It's a mere tick on their business calendar. They probably expect that it’s their right to be there, to a certain extent. However, the community of TIFF programmers try all year to support the art of film with their work, and the film lovers out there are increasingly asked to pay to host TIFF's jet setting Hollywood guests. This episode with Paramount and eOne strikes an ugly note as not only did the film have marginal artistic merit to begin with, but the big red dog ultimately slapped TIFF in the cheek for its hospitality and took a piss on the big red carpet on its way out the door.