Bell has sponsored the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) for the last 28 years, but after the two companies parted ways last year, Rogers has stepped in to fill the gap.
The film festival is slated to run from September 5 to 15. It will now feature a heavy presence from Rogers during that time and will be on the closed sections of Toronto’s King St during the festival week. The telecom giant is also sponsoring the film festival’s People’s Choice Awards.
Rogers customers will be able to snag VIP experiences at the festival screenings and other exclusive VIP events during the festival.
When Bell was the festival’s lead sponsor, it contributed roughly $5 million per year, but Rogers hasn’t shared how much it will contribute to the film festival, according to a report from The Globe and Mail. A separate report on the Tiff Theatre on King Street mentions that it supposedly cost around $4.6 million per year to run the establishment, which is pretty much all the money Bell donated. The theatre is projected to take in less than $1 million annually.
The Globe and Mail report also states that this year’s festival is a comeback of sorts for TIFF. Last year’s festival was disrupted by the actors and writers’ strikes in Hollywood and the two before that by COVID-19. This year, the company is looking to go big, but that remains to be seen since Bell, luxury jeweller Bvlgari, and Therme Group have all dropped out as major sponsors. Therme is the private company planning to redevelop Ontario Place into a spa. The group was slated to Sponsor TIFF for ten years, but paused its sponsorship last year.
The federal government promised $23 million over three years to help TIFF grow as a hub for buying and selling films, but that’s not slated to launch until 2026. This is the largest donation TIFF has received since 2010, when it got $25 million from the Ontario government and another $25 million from the federal government to help build the TIFF theatre on King St.
Source: TIFF, The Globe and Mail, Canadian Business
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