TIFF’s first official market closes with encouraging sales and growing pains, governments compete harder for production, independent producers confront the mid-budget squeeze, and Asian film infrastructure expands across Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. PLUS The Violinist opens in Singapore.
1. Theatrical Cinema Keeps Breaking Records
‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Becomes Biggest US Box Office Hit of All Time Screen Daily reports that Spider-Man: Brand New Day has passed Star Wars: The Force Awakens to become the highest-grossing film ever at the North American box office, reaching more than US$936 million after 47 days. Its run has now produced records across opening weekend, opening week and numerous cumulative milestones.
Global Box Office Reign for ‘Spider-Man’ and ‘The Odyssey’ Ends as ‘Practical Magic 2’ Takes Top Spot Screen Daily reports Practical Magic 2 ending an eight-week stretch in which either Spider-Man or The Odyssey topped the worldwide chart, opening to US$46 million globally. Its softer-than-expected result also shows that the theatrical recovery continues to be highly uneven between titles.
‘Practical Magic 2’, Oasis Documentary and ‘Pressure’ Lead UK-Ireland Box Office Three new releases occupied the top three positions in the UK and Ireland, while The Odyssey and Spider-Man continued their record-setting runs beneath them. The weekend provides a healthier picture of theatrical diversity than the event-film-heavy global chart alone.
2. TIFF’s First Market: Sales, Scale and Growing Pains
Sales, Few Packages and Badge Lines – Attendees Assess Inaugural TIFF: The Market Screen Daily’s post-mortem on Toronto’s first formal market is essential reading. TIFF recorded 7,010 delegates from 92 countries, 1,473 buyers, 238 exhibitors and more than 116,000 attendances at market events, surpassing its original delegate target—although buyers and sellers reported limited new packages and significant first-year logistical problems.
Universal, Blumhouse Atomic Monster Take TIFF Midnight Madness Hit ‘River’ The first major acquisition of TIFF saw Universal and Blumhouse Atomic Monster closing a deal reportedly worth more than US$10 million for Josh Giuliano’s River. Particularly notable: Independent Film Company and Shudder already held US rights before buyers began pursuing the film following its premiere.
AGC Reports Robust Sales on TIFF Crowdpleaser ‘Babies’ Lauren Miller Rogen’s Babies, starring Anna Kendrick and Seth Rogen, closed deals across the UK, Latin America, Germany, Canada, Australia-New Zealand, Scandinavia and numerous other territories after its Toronto world premiere.
Trudie Styler’s ‘Up Against It’ Scores Additional Sales Ahead of Toronto Premiere Beta Cinema expanded sales of Up Against It to more than 50 territories before its TIFF Gala premiere.
Killer Films’ Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler Talk Mid-Budget Films at TIFF The veteran producers behind Carol, Past Lives and Todd Haynes’ work discussed the increasingly difficult environment for mid-budget independent cinema. Their conversation is a useful counterpoint to Toronto’s expansion as a marketplace: more market infrastructure does not necessarily make difficult films easier to finance.
‘La Bola Negra’ Wins TIFF People’s Choice Award, ‘Angh’ Takes Platform Netflix-backed La Bola Negra wins Toronto’s audience award ahead of its unusually long 47-day theatrical window, while Indian feature Angh wins Platform. Significantly, Platform’s new Academy recognition means qualifying non-English-language winners now have a potential route towards the International Feature Oscar independent of national-selection committees.
3. Governments Want Production Back
US Federal Incentive Could Generate $125bn in Extra Production Spend, Study Finds An MPA-commissioned Olsberg SPI study argues that a proposed federal production incentive could generate US$125 billion in additional US production spending between 2027 and 2035. Its model assumes a transferable 20% federal credit that could be stacked with existing state incentives, reflecting growing concern over productions leaving the United States.
UK and Canada Sign Updated Co-Production Treaty The two countries have modernised their longstanding treaty to encompass digital platforms while allowing greater flexibility around financing, copyright, revenues and distribution. Official co-productions can continue accessing domestic funding and tax incentives in both territories.
West of England Launches £4.5m Production Fund The new Greenlight West fund will provide non-recoupable grants of between £50,000 and £500,000 to commercially viable productions generating regional spending, employment and skills development. It is another example of sub-national governments competing directly for mobile film and television production.
TorinoFilmLab Selects Three Features for €50,000 Co-Production Fund Grants TorinoFilmLab selected projects from the Philippines, Kosovo and Myanmar from more than 140 applicants, providing each with €50,000 and consultancy support. Burmese filmmaker Sein Lyan Tun’s The Beer Girl in Yangon is produced across Indonesia, France, Singapore and Japan, illustrating precisely the kind of cross-border financing these programmes enable.
European Work in Progress Unveils 25 Projects for 2026 FilmFest Hamburg’s industry platform selected 25 projects from a record 270 submissions for pitching to distributors, programmers and sales companies. The slate includes projects from Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia, including Indian filmmaker Suman Sen’s Eka.
Paramount and California AG in Advanced Talks to Settle Warner Bros. Antitrust Suit Paramount and California Attorney General Rob Bonta reportedly resumed negotiations over the US$110 billion Warner Bros. transaction, including discussion of temporarily operating the two film studios separately. The possibility of structural separation shows how production and theatrical commitments are becoming central components of merger negotiations.
4. Festivals Are Rebuilding Their Industrial Roles
San Sebastián Opens With Werner Herzog Donostia Award San Sebastián opened its 74th edition on 18 September, moving the autumn festival circuit onward from Venice and Toronto. The festival continues to combine Competition premieres with one of Europe’s increasingly important co-production and project-development ecosystems.
Rotterdam Managing Director Clare Stewart to Step Down Clare Stewart will leave her management position after IFFR 2027 but continue developing the Cate Blanchett-led Displacement Film Fund. The leadership transition is worth watching for a festival that has increasingly intertwined exhibition, talent development and project financing through CineMart and the Hubert Bals Fund.
Dubai International Film Festival Set to Return in 2027 DIFF will return after a decade-long absence, with the revived festival promising a particular focus on Arab cinema and an industry platform connecting filmmakers with investors. Its return potentially reshapes a Gulf festival environment now also occupied by Red Sea and Doha.
5. Asia: Production Support, Markets and New Circulation Routes
Korea Boosts Production Support for 16 Projects With Nearly $20m The Korean Film Council will distribute KRW25.7 billion across 16 mid-budget films as part of an initiative launched to revive domestic production and box office. Eight supported films are by first-time directors, while projects include Koji Fukada’s Korea-Japan co-production Grateful and Um Tae-hwa’s next feature.
Finecut Scores Sales of Features Based on Short-Form Series With K-pop Stars South Korea’s Finecut has begun selling theatrical feature versions of three productions originally conceived as short-form series. After-School Exorcism Club: Girls’ Night has already sold to Singapore, Indonesia and Taiwan, while other titles have secured Japan, Hong Kong and regional deals. The movement from micro-format to theatrical feature is particularly noteworthy.
Chinese Box Office Hit ‘Once Upon A Time In The Middle East’ Lands North American Distribution Well Go USA acquired Wen Muye’s US$318-million Chinese hit for North American theatrical release. The deal provides another example of commercially successful Chinese cinema finding international theatrical circulation beyond the diaspora-specialist release model.
Zhang Yimou to Lead Busan Competition Jury Zhang will preside over a pan-Asian jury including Bi Gan, July Jung, Kei Ishikawa and Vietnamese producer Tran Thi Bich Ngoc. More consequentially, Busan’s best-film winner can now qualify for the International Feature Oscar following BIFF’s new FIAPF recognition, increasing the stakes of its recently created Competition.
AGBO Executives to Deliver AI-Themed Keynote at TIFFCOM Tokyo’s content market is putting artist-led AI and machine learning at the centre of its industry conference, with AGBO executives Chris Brearton and Dominic Hughes delivering the keynote. TIFFCOM will also release anime-industry research and stage an international anime co-production conference.
Cate Blanchett Brings Displacement Film Fund Premieres to Tokyo Tokyo will host the Japanese premieres of five shorts backed by Blanchett’s Displacement Film Fund, including works by Mohammad Rasoulof and Shahrbanoo Sadat. The fund is supported by IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund and represents an interesting collaboration between philanthropic funding and festival infrastructure.
‘The Age of Goodbyes’ and ‘The Scar-Faced Cat’ to Bookend Golden Horse Film Festival Malaysian filmmaker Edmund Yeo’s Taiwan-Malaysia co-production The Age of Goodbyes will open Taipei’s Golden Horse Film Festival following its Toronto premiere. The festival will close with Taiwanese feature The Scar-Faced Cat: Way of Asura, continuing Golden Horse’s position as a major platform connecting Chinese-language cinemas across borders.
Weta FX and Netflix Bring AI, Financing and Story Development to Busan’s Creative Asia Netflix, BIFF, the Asian Film Commissions Network and MPA are expanding Creative Asia at Busan, adding workshops with Netflix executives alongside an AI panel involving Weta FX. Sessions explicitly address how projects get developed, financed and bought, positioning the initiative increasingly as professional-development infrastructure rather than a promotional event.
TorinoFilmLab Funds Filipino and Myanmar Projects Martika Ramirez Escobar’s Daughters of the Sea and Sein Lyan Tun’s The Beer Girl in Yangon were among only three projects selected globally for TorinoFilmLab’s €50,000 co-production grants. The latter brings together Indonesian KawanKawan Media, France’s In Vivo Films, Singapore’s Momo Film Co and Japan’s Loaded Films.
‘Angh’ Wins TIFF Platform Award Theja Rio’s Nagaland-set Indian feature wins Toronto’s Platform competition at a moment when the prize has acquired new industry significance: qualifying international-language Platform winners can now become eligible for the International Feature Oscar. For smaller film industries and minority-language cinemas, that creates an additional path around national selection systems.
European Work in Progress Selects Indian Project ‘Eka’ Among Record Submissions Suman Sen’s Indian feature is among 25 projects selected for Hamburg’s work-in-progress market from 270 submissions. Its presence is another example of Asian projects increasingly using European finishing and sales platforms rather than relying only on Asian project markets.
6. In Singapore
‘The Violinist’ Opens in Singapore Cinemas on 17 September Annecy Cristal winner The Violinist began its commercial Singapore run this week through Golden Village Pictures, in both English and Mandarin versions. The release follows Toronto Centrepiece and precedes Busan, making its campaign an unusually clear example of a Singapore film coordinating major-festival prestige with a domestic theatrical launch.
CNA used the release to argue that the film’s international success demonstrates that Singapore stories do not necessarily need to dilute local history or identity to travel. The film moves across colonial Singapore, wartime Malaya and the Japanese Occupation while remaining designed for international audiences.
Mediacorp Expands Korean Collaborations With ‘Collateral Romance’ and Four Microdramas Mediacorp announced a 12-episode Singapore-South Korea co-production with Korean investment company Blintn, alongside a separate agreement with SBS subsidiary Studio S and short-form platform Soonshot to make four microdramas using Singaporean and Korean talent. Collateral Romance will film across both countries and premiere in 2027.
The microdrama partnership is particularly worth tracking after the format’s rapid global growth this year. The first project adapts Korean romantic comedy Still 17 and is targeted for release by the end of 2026, with distribution planned across Mediacorp and Soonshot platforms internationally.
Singapore’s Momo Film Co Joins TorinoFilmLab-Funded ‘The Beer Girl in Yangon’ Singapore’s Momo Film Co is co-producing Burmese filmmaker Sein Lyan Tun’s debut alongside KawanKawan Media, In Vivo Films and Loaded Films. The €50,000 TorinoFilmLab award adds another European financing layer to a project that has previously passed through Locarno Open Doors and Cannes’ Cinéfondation ecosystem.
Ervin Han Joins TIFFCOM Anime Co-Production Conference Following The Violinist’s Annecy win and Singapore release, co-director Ervin Han has been announced for an international anime co-production session at Tokyo’s TIFFCOM. His inclusion places Singapore animation directly within a wider conversation around how Asian animated features can be structured internationally.
‘Avengers Endgame: Encore’ Heads Back to Singapore Cinemas Marvel will re-release Avengers: Endgame locally from 24 September with exclusive Avengers: Doomsday footage, including additional material for IMAX and the new Infinity Vision premium format. The release is another example of catalogue titles being repackaged as event cinema to market upcoming franchise films and premium screens.