One word and its variants has come to define the Toronto International Film Festival in a time of challenge and renewal: transformative.

Addressing the need for new thinking as TIFF theatrical and exhibition attendance plateaus and online movie-watching soars, “transformative” is in most of the speeches and news releases emanating from the fest’s TIFF Bell Lightbox headquarters at King and John Sts.

Enter Joana Vicente, a transformer for transformative times. A digital film pioneer from New York City, where she helped make indie film a viable rival to Hollywood’s hegemony as boss of the Independent Filmmaker Project, Vicente is TIFF’s new executive director and co-head, a job she’s had since Nov. 1. She shares the co-head title with Cameron Bailey, who is also TIFF’s artistic director.

Together, Vicente and Bailey will plan and guide the future of a world cinema institution that in 2020 will celebrate its 45th anniversary, as part of a revitalization process that has recently included farewells from some key TIFF personalities, notably director/CEO Piers Handling and executive director/COO Michèle Maheux.

Read more:

Indigenous films highlight Canadian slate at TIFF 2019

David Foster gets the spotlight

TIFF bringing in new films starring Tom Hanks, Christian Bale, Joaquin Phoenix and dozens more

“TIFF had the same leadership for 30 years,” Vicente says in a recent interview in her minimalist office, her dark clothing contrasting with the room’s bare white walls.

“It’s the end of a chapter and the beginning of another. We’re working our way through what that new chapter is going to be … Everything is changing around us and it’s changing really fast. We need to adjust and adapt, and figure out what that vision is for the future, to continue to be as relevant and vital as we are now.”

The challenges are many. TIFF remains popular with its trademark 11-day festival in September — ticket packages are already 91 per cent sold for this year’s Sept. 5 to 15 event — but it has struggled with its year-round Lightbox attractions. A recent interactive film exhibition titled Picture Palace was wrapped up two months early due to poor attendance.

And the swift rise of streaming services threatens theatrical butts-in-seats at both art-houses and multiplexes. Leading streamer Netflix is spending $15 billion (U.S.) this year on new productions. It will soon be joined by rival streaming services launched by Disney/Fox, Apple, WarnerMedia and more, each of them bearing fat wallets.

Vicente, who was born in Portugal and speaks five languages, is uniquely qualified to address these challenges, with many years of experience both as a film producer and digital innovator. She’s the Oscar-nominated producer of more than 40 feature films, including such critically acclaimed works as Todd Solondz’s Welcome to the Dollhouse, Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes and Nadine Labaki’s Cannes 2018 sensation Capernaum.

In 1998, Vicente and her husband, Jason Kliot, her partner in their Open City Films company, launched an offshoot called Blow Up Pictures, the first U.S. digital production firm. Their debut film, Chuck & Buck — a bromance drama starring Mike White and Chris Weitz, directed by Miguel Arteta — premiered at Sundance in 2000, becoming the first digital movie produced and distributed in the U.S.

Then came HDNet Films in 2003, for which Vicente and Kliot partnered with digital-era entrepreneurs Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner. They produced Steven Soderbergh’s 2005 murder mystery Bubble, which was simultaneously released to theatres, cable TV and DVD — a daring multimedia strategy that blew minds in the pre-Netflix world.

Vicente smiles as she acknowledges the irony of being a digital innovator now seeking to preserve TIFF’s analog tradition of big-screen theatrical movies. But Vicente, who is also a teacher — she’s taught a university course on the business of film — argues that her digital endeavours have always been about enhancing theatrical distribution, not destroying it.

“I totally feel the irony! But the thing is, we always loved theatrical. We called our company Blow Up Pictures because we were going to shoot (film) digitally, we were going to take advantage of the technology, we were going to edit it digitally and then we were going to transfer it to 35-mm (celluloid) because we love how it looks — and I think that those transfers were really actually magical.

“So we always loved the theatrical experience. But that doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t have the choice and shouldn’t have the opportunity to see films anywhere they want. We need to do the work to make them realize that people need to come to see the film here (at TIFF Bell Lightbox). It’s better to see a film with people. You get a lot more immersed, you’re not distracted and you have the full experience.”

Eric Kohn, the chief film critic and executive editor for New York City-based Indiewire, watched Vicente in action during her IFP days. He feels she’s ready to get some positive change going for TIFF in Toronto.

“Her team was very effective at keeping a scrappy institute relevant during one of the more unpredictable moments for the industry, and she was able to launch the Made in New York Media Center, which is no small feat,” Kohn says via email.

“It’s hard to say whether those experiences can translate into the much larger arena of a film festival with a large year-round venue attached at the hip, but then again, Joana hadn’t run an institution like IFP when she took that place over, either. She clearly has an intricate understanding of the independent film community in all its many facets, from production to distribution, and that holistic understanding of the business may be her greatest asset as TIFF looks to the future.”

Vicente was keenly aware of the task ahead as she answered a series of questions for the Star:

How have you found sharing the co-head job with Cameron Bailey? Does it work the way it was advertised, with you concentrating more on TIFF’s business affairs and he more on artistic endeavours?

Yes, but I’m not just a business executive and Cameron has a good business mind. We can be more than just the sum of the parts. We can work and build on each other, on what we bring to the table, to create a more holistic vision for the organization. I couldn’t ask for a better business partner. He’s fantastic.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

(Bailey returns the compliment, via email: “Joana and I share a passion for film and a drive to reach audiences with the very best TIFF can offer. In addition, she brings global instincts, deep experience and a vital New York energy to getting the job done here. She’s been an inspiration.”)

Streaming services like Netflix are spending billions creating original content, attracting many filmmakers — including many that have been mainstays of TIFF and other festivals. How do TIFF and other film festivals fit into this brave new world?

I think festivals have a really important role to play, potentially even more important (than before) … We’re going to be that moment for films where they can have that theatrical experience with the audience and really capture people’s imaginations, and get all of that press and give them some recognition.

Because I think the fear is when you have so much and it’s all behind a (streaming) wall, it’s like, how do you access, how do you discover? People become lazy, you know? It’s like, ‘Whatever comes to me …’ But sometimes the things that one likes are things that we maybe didn’t know we like. Things that are an acquired taste or which are not obvious. Sometimes transformation happens when you see things out of your comfort zone. (Streaming) algorithms are going to be just bringing you what you like.

How can you translate the success of TIFF’s 11-day September festival to its year-round operation at TIFF Bell Lightbox?

The same challenges apply: What are the films that can work theatrically, that can compel people to come? How can we make that collective experience really rewarding and transformative so that people will still want to come here? I think that’s an ongoing challenge for everyone … It’s impossible to sustain that momentum of the festival, but we can sprinkle (Lightbox offerings) with that magic.”

TIFF has been big-screening some Netflix films, both at the September festival and during the year at the Lightbox, sometimes even while a film is simultaneously screening online. How has that arrangement been working for TIFF?

It depends on the film. We showed (Netflix’s) Roma for 12 weeks if not more and people were coming. If you see it at home on the small screen, the film doesn’t breathe. That’s not how you should see that film. The same with Martin Scorsese’s (Netflix) film Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story. There was a demand for it. It’s more fun to see it with people. I would love to show (Scorsese’s new film) The Irishman here.”

Are you optimistic that TIFF can continue to work with the streamers, even as more and more of them enter the scene?

Absolutely. We need to be nimble and we need to be aware of all the conversations and be right in with them. Listen, this is the film business. There are hits and there are misses. It’s like everything: there is no formula. You can’t just say, “This is going to work because of A, B, C …” because then it doesn’t work. You never know what really resonates with people. So there will always be mistakes, but it’s OK. As long as you learn from them and you go for it. One needs to take risks and to take risks you sometimes are going to miss on something.

Two years ago, TIFF unveiled a five-year strategic plan titled “Audience First” that promised to pivot away from just screening movies toward giving people “transformative experiences.” How’s that going?

I think it’s a great principle and reminder. Because at the end of the day, no matter what we do or what we show, if it doesn’t resonate with people then it doesn’t matter. Everything that we do needs an audience to experience it …

But any strategic plan is a living organism and an organization is a living organization. I think it’s important that you’re always making sure that it still makes sense and that everyone interprets it the same way.

What do you think when you read articles predicting the death of big-screen theatrical film?

Thank God it hasn’t died and I don’t think it will die soon!

CORRECTION — AUG. 6, 2019: This column has been edited from an earlier version that described Eric Kohn as deputy editor of Indiewire.

This interview was condensed and edited.

Read more about: