Overview Variety runs its own slate of events inside the Toronto International Film Festival, anchored by a Women in Film dinner with Chanel that in 2026 brought out Michelle Yeoh, Sarah Paulson, Colman Domingo, Ayo Edebiri and Lily-Rose Depp. Around it in 2025 sat a three-day interview studio, a cover party at RBC House and two Global Conversations panels on the future of film studios. In 2026 Variety added Future in Focus, an invite-only program of conversations presented by Utopai Studios, and a creator showcase and party with YouTube inside TIFF: The Market screenings. TIFF was founded in 1976 and opens on the Thursday after Labour Day for eleven days; its top prize, the People's Choice Award, is voted by the audience. On site In 2026 the Chanel dinner opened with a cocktail hour in the bar and moved upstairs to a seated dinner; in 2025 it was held at Soho House Toronto, with salmon crudo, shogun maitake and branzino on the menu. Speeches come from Variety's editors, TIFF leadership and the president of Chanel Canada. The 2025 studio ran September 5 to 7 with casts from Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, Hamnet, Steve and Christy, and the cover party that year celebrated Channing Tatum and Derek Cianfrance for Roofman. At the 2026 YouTube showcase Mark Vins premiered Reef to Ridge, his Galapagos documentary, and Ziwe screened two new episodes of her series, each followed by a Q and A with Variety's executive editor of film. Audience The dinner is built to put women and nonbinary filmmakers in a room with the people who finance and buy films: in 2026 Ramin Setoodeh asked the women filmmakers and producers to raise their hands and told the executives those were the people to talk to. It also honors the fellows of the Chanel Women Creators' Network, a program for women and nonbinary alumni of TIFF's Share Her Journey writers' program. Future in Focus ran by invitation. Talent and Influencers The 2025 studio list named Ryan Reynolds, Sydney Sweeney, Matthew McConaughey, Daniel Craig, Cillian Murphy, Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Natalie Portman and Jodie Foster. Shailene Woodley, Ethan Hawke, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Bob Odenkirk came to the 2025 dinner. James McAvoy, Rebel Wilson, Rachel Morrison and Liz Garbus spoke at Future in Focus in 2026, and Seth Rogen, Patricia Arquette, Courteney Cox, David Harbour and Luke Evans were at that year's dinner. Track record The Chanel partnership dates to 2018, and Setoodeh told the 2025 room that connections made at the dinner had turned into year-round collaborations. In 2026, 35% of TIFF's official selection was directed or co-directed by women, reaching a goal TIFF had set for 2028, and at that year's dinner TIFF's chief business and marketing officer, Jennifer Frees, credited partners such as Chanel and Variety. Brand presence Each event carries its own partner. Chanel co-hosts the dinner. RBC presented the 2025 cover party at RBC House, and FIJI Water supported both that party and the studio. Shadowbox Studios and Film New Mexico partnered on the 2025 Global Conversations panels. Utopai Studios presented Future in Focus in 2026 and put its head of production on the closing panel, and YouTube co-hosted the creator showcase. Studio and event content runs on Variety.com and Variety's social platforms.