2022 Toronto International Film Festival

2022 Toronto International Film Festival
Festival poster
Opening filmThe Swimmers by Sally El Hosaini
Closing filmDalíland by Mary Harron
LocationToronto, Ontario, Canada
Founded1976
AwardsThe Fabelmans (People's Choice Award)
Festival dateSeptember 8–18, 2022
Websitetiff.net/tiff
Toronto International Film Festival

The 47th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from September 8 to 18, 2022.[1]

The 2022 festival was staged primarily in-person; a small selection of films were offered on the Digital TIFF Bell Lightbox platform, but this represented a much smaller proportion of the overall lineup than in 2020 and 2021.[2] The festival also saw the return of its networking and gala events, which were also suspended or held virtually in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto.[3]

As of mid-July, the festival had diverged from its usual practice of releasing a list of ten or twenty films to start its programming announcements, and instead issued a number of single-film announcements,[4] before finally releasing its first extended list of the full gala and special presentations programs on July 28.[5] Additional films were announced throughout August, until the full schedule was released on August 23. Festival CEO Cameron Bailey indicated that the full lineup would comprise around 200 feature films and about 40 short films, the largest lineup the festival has booked since the pre-pandemic 2019 edition.[6]

Sally El Hosaini's The Swimmers was the opening film,[7] and the closing film was Mary Harron's Dalíland.[8] The Fabelmans, which screened as a special presentation and won the People's Choice Award, marked the first time in history that a Steven Spielberg film premiered at the festival.[6] Jordan Peele's Nope, although already released in theaters prior to the festival, was also screened in IMAX at the Cinesphere as a special presentation in the main festival slate.[9]

The festival also indicated that in light of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, state-backed Russian films and organizations would be banned from the festival, although participation by independent Russian filmmakers would still be permitted.[10]

In 2023, festival organizers announced that the 2022 festival had returned to levels of in-person attendance comparable to the festivals prior to 2020.[11]

  1. ^ "'Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery' to debut at TIFF" Archived September 22, 2022, at the Wayback Machine. CTV News, June 29, 2022.
  2. ^ Barry Hertz, "Daniel Craig’s Netflix thriller Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery to have world premiere at TIFF 2022" Archived June 30, 2022, at the Wayback Machine. The Globe and Mail, June 29, 2022.
  3. ^ Jeremy Kay, "TIFF unveils key additions to programming team, details of 2022 edition" Archived February 27, 2022, at the Wayback Machine. Screen Daily, February 24, 2022.
  4. ^ Hertz, Barry (July 6, 2022). "TIFF to host world premiere of Clement Virgo's buzzy adaptation of Scarborough-set novel Brother". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on August 15, 2022. Retrieved December 14, 2022.
  5. ^ Brian Welk, "TIFF 2022 Lineup: Films From Tyler Perry, Peter Farrelly, Sam Mendes and Catherine Hardwicke to Premiere" Archived September 28, 2022, at the Wayback Machine. TheWrap, July 29, 2022.
  6. ^ a b Brent Lang, "Toronto Film Festival CEO Cameron Bailey on Landing Spielberg’s ‘The Fabelmans’ and Returning to Splashy Premieres" Archived October 4, 2022, at the Wayback Machine. Variety, July 28, 2022.
  7. ^ "‘The Swimmers’ chosen as Toronto International Film Festival opening night gala film" Archived October 14, 2022, at the Wayback Machine. The Globe and Mail, July 27, 2022.
  8. ^ Jeremy Kay, "TIFF unveils world premiere of ‘Daliland’ as closing night selection" Archived August 10, 2022, at the Wayback Machine. Screen Daily, August 9, 2022.
  9. ^ Etan Vlessing, "TIFF: Jordan Peele’s ‘Nope’ Set for Imax Screening at Film Fest" Archived August 30, 2022, at the Wayback Machine. The Hollywood Reporter, August 30, 2022.
  10. ^ Jeremy Kay, "TIFF bans state-backed Russian delegations from festival, will programme independent Russian films" Archived April 21, 2023, at the Wayback Machine. Screen Daily, March 3, 2022.
  11. ^ Jeremy Kay, "Taika Waititi’s ‘Next Goal Wins’ to world premiere at Toronto 2023". Screen Daily, June 28, 2023.