TIFF 2025 isn’t only about red carpets and premieres. It’s also where industry leaders reveal how stories from podcasts, webnovels, and online communities are reshaping the future of screen storytelling.
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is known for world premieres, packed screenings, and the glow of flashbulbs. It is also a working summit for the global screen trade. Inside the Canadian Broadcasting Centre, “PERSPECTIVES: Sourcing Stories in a Multi-Platform World” brought together decision-makers who shape how ideas travel from niche communities to mainstream culture.
Moderated by Aron Levitz, President of Wattpad, the session featured Justin McGoldrick, producer and founder of Sound Picture, and Adam Levine, founding partner at the talent agency Verve. Between them: deep expertise in fan-driven publishing, podcast-to-screen pipelines, and packaging that turns early sparks of interest into bankable projects.
IP means more than books now
For decades, intellectual property meant novels, comics, and magazine features. The panel mapped a much wider terrain. A serialized webnovel, a Reddit short story, a Twitch channel, or a narrative podcast can all serve as credible source material. What qualifies is less about format and more about proof of resonance. When a story arrives with an active community around it, executives see a lower-risk path to adaptation.
Fandom is the new validator
The centre of gravity has shifted from provenance to participation. The question is no longer “Has this been published by a traditional gatekeeper?” but “Is there a community that shows up for it?” Audience energy becomes data, and data becomes leverage. That leverage helps a producer secure elements, an agent negotiate better terms, and a platform justify greenlighting something unfamiliar.
Creators hold more cards
Many creators build large audiences on their own before industry players enter the picture. That independence changes the conversation about rights, control, and creative direction. The panel underscored how effective partners respect the culture around a project, involve originators meaningfully, and design pathways that expand a property without alienating the people who made it matter in the first place.
Short, sharp “artifacts” open doors
Executives have limited time. The panel’s practical takeaway: lead with a concise artifact that communicates tone and potential. A great thirty-page short story or a tight pitch document often travels farther than a full spec script or a 200-episode podcast feed. These artifacts act like trailers for ideas, making it easier to enlist talent, attract producers, and create competitive tension among buyers.
Packaging is strategy, not paperwork
Deals today are built around ecosystems, not single outputs. A property might live as a film, a limited series, a book imprint, a live experience, and a merchandising line, each timed to lift the others. Smart packaging aligns the right writer, director, or talent with the right buyer at the right moment. It also anticipates timelines and “real estate” realities, like a broadcaster’s limited slots or a streamer’s shifting priorities.
Rights retention and the power of plan
Studios often want everything. The panel’s counsel: keep what you can justify keeping. Retaining publishing, live, or merchandise rights becomes realistic when there is a credible plan to activate them. Leverage grows when multiple parties are interested, when audience metrics are strong, and when a team can show how withheld rights will be exploited quickly and professionally.
Podcasts, yes—but be intentional
Audio can be a strong on-ramp, yet the panel cautioned against making fiction podcasts solely as calling cards. Poorly executed voice performances or production choices can work against an otherwise strong concept. If the goal is screen adaptation, a crafted short story or pilot scene packet may be a faster, cleaner way to communicate the promise while avoiding the uncanny valley between formats.
Build with the audience, not around them
Super-fans are unpaid dramaturges. They know the Easter eggs, the colour of a pivotal dress, the backstory of a tertiary character. Bringing them in early can surface issues before cameras roll and help identify the details that make an adaptation feel “right” to the people who cared first. The risk of early feedback is outweighed by the cost of missing what the community considers sacred.
A pragmatic path for emerging storytellers
The Q&A crystallized an accessible route for newcomers:
- Make it snackable. Create a sharp, self-contained artifact that communicates tone, stakes, and world in minutes, not hours.
- Prove demand. Publish where your audience lives and nurture engagement so your pitch arrives with evidence, not hope.
- Matchmake for execution. Pair a strong idea with collaborators who can raise its execution to professional standard.
- Design the flywheel. Know which medium goes first and how each subsequent spoke—book, screen, live, merch—reinforces the others.
- Guard your upside. Negotiate to retain rights you can realistically exploit, and show how you will do it.
The takeaway from TIFF 2025
The screen industry is moving from a pipeline to a network. Stories don’t march from “script to screen” in a straight line; they circulate through communities, platforms, and formats, gathering momentum at each turn. The winners in this environment are the teams who can spot authentic signals in unexpected places, respect the culture that forms around them, and assemble deals that let a story grow without losing its soul.
TIFF remains a showcase for cinema. It is also a laboratory for the ideas, playbooks, and relationships that will define what cinema—and everything orbiting it—looks like next.