Toronto Film Festival to Sign Gender Parity and Inclusion Charter

The zeitgeist-catching move by artistic director and co-head Cameron Bailey follows similar commitments to the 5050x2020 movement by Cannes and Venice.

Toronto Film Festival artistic director and co-head Cameron Bailey will become the latest signatory from a major film festival to sign a historic charter that aims for 50-50 gender parity and inclusion by 2020.

TIFF on Friday confirmed Bailey will make the commitment at a signing ceremony on Saturday, Sept. 8, ahead of the festival's Share Her Journey women's rally where actresses Geena Davis, Amanda Brugel and Mia Kirshner and directors Nandita Das and Amma Asante will speak.

Toronto will follow Cannes and Venice in committing the organization to gender parity and inclusion, in part by compiling and releasing statistics on the gender and race of its film submissions, including their directors and, where applicable, the cast and crew.

Toronto will also make public the gender and race of its film selectors and programmers and its executive board members as it aims at gender parity and inclusion in their ranks. With recent hires, TIFF currently has 13 women and nine men working as film programmers ahead of its 43rd edition.

The festival will offer its own progress updates and provide key data to the 5050x2020 movement, which originated in Cannes.

The Toronto Film Festival is set to run from Sept. 6-16.