Gary Oldman, Obsession director join TIFF Market lineup
Gary Oldman, Obsession director Curry Barker and Barbie producer Robbie Brenner are among the headline speakers at TIFF: The Market, the Toronto International Film Festival's inaugural industry market running Sept. 10-16. The lineup pairs streaming and film talent for Visionaries and Dialogues sessions aimed at creators and dealmakers.
Key Takeaways
- Gary Oldman will headline a Visionaries talk anchored in his creative process as Slow Horses Season 6 premieres at TIFF.
- Obsession director Curry Barker and star Inde Navarrette will discuss the Focus Features hit's path from last year's TIFF debut to box-office success.
- Barbie producer Robbie Brenner, president and chief content officer of Mattel Studios, joins a moderated career conversation and brings The Housewife to the festival.
- TIFF: The Market runs Sept. 10-16, with Warner Bros. co-chairs Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca already confirmed among speakers.
According to Variety, the fresh names expand the speaker roster for TIFF's first dedicated market week, designed to put creativity and commerce in the same room.
Who else is speaking at TIFF: The Market?
Alongside Oldman, Barker and Brenner, confirmed participants include Obsession star Inde Navarrette, filmmaker Lee Chang-dong, and Killer Films founders Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler.
They join Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca, co-chairs and CEOs of the Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, who were announced earlier. Matthew Belloni's podcast The Town will also tape live at the market with Fox Searchlight Pictures president Matthew Greenfield as a special guest.
Charles Tremblay, head of TIFF: The Market, said the caliber of speakers shows industry support for building on TIFF's reputation as a space where creativity and commerce can coexist. Additional speakers and programming will be announced in the coming weeks.
What will Gary Oldman and the Obsession team discuss?
In the Visionaries program, Oldman's session will celebrate a career of varied characters, including Jackson Lamb in the espionage drama Slow Horses. The festival noted Season 6 of the series is premiering at TIFF, giving streaming audiences a clear festival hook.
Brenner's Visionaries conversation will spotlight her work as a two-time Oscar-nominated producer behind Barbie and Dallas Buyers Club, plus her role leading Mattel Studios. She is also bringing The Housewife to this year's festival.
Lee Chang-dong's Visionaries talk will use his upcoming Possible Love as a focal point, with the festival citing his naturalistic style as a novelist and playwright. He will also receive the Ebert Director Tribute Award at TIFF.
Under Dialogues, Curry Barker and Inde Navarrette will center on the making of Obsession and how the film became one of the year's biggest box-office successes after debuting at TIFF last year. Separately, Vachon and Koffler will discuss the multi-faceted role of a producer and their approach to working with filmmakers.
Why does TIFF's first market matter for streaming and film?
TIFF: The Market packages Summit-style talks for creators and decision-makers across theatrical and streaming pipelines. Geoff Macnaughton, VP of market programming and theatrical, said the Summit programming is designed to inspire creators, inform decision makers, and fuel discussions around the evolving screen industries.
For viewers tracking festival-to-platform pipelines, the mix of Slow Horses talent, a breakout theatrical hit like Obsession, and studio producers signals how closely festival markets now sit next to streaming calendars. Follow more festival and platform alerts in our Streaming & TV Alerts hub as TIFF: The Market fills out its September slate.