DISTRIBUTORS SEE OPENING NIGHT AS A POISONED CHALICE.

other-worldly The Shape of Water; Joe Wright’s Winston Churchill period drama Darkest Hour; and the George Clooney-helmed, Matt Damon-starring Suburbicon.

So why don’t these films – or more specifically, the companies behind these films – want the prestige of opening one of the biggest festivals in the world? “Distributors now see the Toronto opening night slot as being something of a poisoned chalice,” said the director of one major Canadian film distributor, who asked not to be named given their ongoing relationship with TIFF. “It has a stink around it – nobody wants to touch it.”

Another said that if TIFF had offered last year’s opening night slot to Barry Jenkins’s impressionistic Oscar Best Picture winner Moonlight, the film’s distributor Elevation Pictures would have turned it down. “It was important for Moonlight to play TIFF,” said the sales agent, “but it would’ve undermined the film’s awards chances if it were to be picked as festival opener.”

For his part, Bailey concedes that TIFF has found it hard to convince some distributors to have their movie launch North America’s biggest film fest. “Opening night can be a bit nerve-wracking,” he says. “In Toronto, you’ve got a large press corps, a big public audience and the entire global film industry watching in a way that you don’t have at those other festivals. A lot of films that are strategizing over their release want a very particular kind of reaction – some of those films may shy away, they may want something that is a little bit more familiar. Just like in baseball or cricket, there are superstitions in the film world. And if a particular slot has worked well in the past, other films who want that same success want the same slot.”

Bailey adds that TIFF’s opening night differs from other international festivals in that it tries to appeal to a broader audience than just cinephiles and art-house fans. “The opening night selection has to serve many different masters,” he says. “You need a film that’s going to work, first of all, for the audience in the room on that night, and that audience is composed of regular movie goers, some of our biggest supporters, media is there as well, people from Toronto and outside of Toronto, some have come in jetlagged from halfway around the world ... it’s a pretty diverse mix of people who are there for different reasons.”

One way that TIFF is attempting to shift gears is by giving each of its sections an opening and closing night film: hence this year there is an opening night selection for Special Presentations, Docs, Canadian Features, Midnight Madness, Platform, Galas, et cetera. Nevertheless, the film industry’s focus still remains – to a large extent – on the one big film chosen to kick off the whole event.

Outside of this year’s rumours about Battle of the Sexes, many were hopeful that Denis Villeneuve’s hotly tipped Blade Runner 2049 would open this year’s TIFF. With a Canadian director and lead actor (Ryan Gosling) leading the billing, the flick would have been a perfect choice for opening night – well deserving of a festival as massive and prestigious as Toronto’s.

But instead we get a Swedish tennis drama that looks unlikely to be remembered a year from now. Meanwhile, Venice and New York will be opening with buzzy films from Alexander Payne (The Descendants) and Richard Linklater (Boyhood) respectively.

So, how can TIFF break its opening-night curse?

Earlier this year we saw the Cannes Film Festival take an aggressive stance with Netflix, demanding that all future films selected for its festival also get theatrical releases in France. It is time for TIFF to roll up its sleeves and get tough. Instead of pleading with filmmakers, execs and distributors for the films it wants, tell all companies submitting that the fest reserves the right to pick whichever film it likes for the opening night slot, and name the selection two weeks before it kicks off.

Or better yet, after the initial lineup of Galas and Special Presentations is announced, have fans vote online for the film they would most like to see open the festival – a sort of reverse People’s Choice Award, if you will. Announce the winner the week before TIFF starts, and have that movie open the festival backed by a wave of buzz from a public that feels as though it participated in a major decision.

If a distributor doesn’t like it, their only option will be to pull their film from TIFF completely, potentially damaging their reputation, box office and awards prospects. Pundits will assume the studio has no confidence in the film, while TIFF simply picks another hot title. At the moment, it might be open season on opening night, but Toronto needs just a few years of hits to redeem the slot’s reputation – a trend that Borg/McEnroe seems unlikely to start.