A Toronto International Film Festival co-founder says he didn't mean to start a major festival in 1976, he just wanted to learn to make movies. But forty years later, TIFF is a globally-recognized success.
Four decades ago, Marshall said he and festival co-founders, Henk Van de Kolk and Dusty Cohl, were just avid film-fans eager to learn the tricks of the trade.
They had no intentions of starting one of the most-prominent film festivals in the world.
"We thought we'd like to learn how to make movies, but we didn't know very much about it," Marshall told CTV News Channel on Thursday. "So we thought that, if we had a film festival, people who did know would come and it would amuse the local populous and we could learn something!"
When it opened in October 1976, TIFF billed itself as the "Festival of Festivals." Organizers even advertised warm fall weather, but it snowed.
Still, the film fest's debut attracted 35,000 movie-goers, eager to catch one or more of the 127 films from 30 countries.
Four decades later, TIFF now screens in early September, when temperatures tend to be warmer.
The 40th annual festival opened on Thursday. It is expected to attract 500,000 fans to see 399 films from 71 countries.
As Marshall modestly put it, "It worked out pretty well."
Looking back on the festival's massive growth, the co-founder said TIFF's success is a product of Toronto itself.
"This is the multicultural capital of the world," he said. "So you bring films from every country in the world and the audience is already here."
When it started in '76, TIFF was popular because it offered something unique in a city unlike any other, Marshall said.
"There was no one else doing that. There was no ethnic television, there was no Netflix. So we were the only place you could see Greek, French, Italian, movies."
Despite advances in technology and growing globalization, Marshall said he thinks the festival holds some of the same appeal today.
"The (other film festivals) that you hear about, Cannes, Berlin and Venice, they're not for the public. They're basically trade shows. The difference is that we do it for the people who live here."
Though some critics have complained that the increasingly-glitzy Toronto fest is "too Hollywood," Marshall said he disagrees.
While there is a part of him that misses the "old days," he said today's festival continues to offer films diverse enough to reflect the host city.
"We never promised everything for everybody," he said. However, "There's something for everybody, and that's what you get."
And while much has changed – from the festival and its fans to the film business in general – Marshall says he still makes it out to TIFF every year.
"I'm kind of wired into it now," he said. "If I don't go to a couple of movies a day and get into a couple parties, I feel kind of left out!"
With files from The Canadian Press
