5 Highlights from Our Week at the First-Ever TIFF: The Market
From live demonstrations and bringing creators' ideas to life to conversations with filmmakers from around the world, here's a look back at our week at TIFF: The Market 2026.
From September 10 to 16, we spent an exciting week at the inaugural TIFF: The Market in Toronto, meeting people from across the global screen industry and learning about their projects, workflows and creative challenges.
The first edition welcomed 7,010 registered delegates from 92 countries, 238 exhibitors, 1,473 buyers participating in meetings and 196 market screenings, according to post-event reporting from Screen Daily.
Here are five highlights from our week at TIFF: The Market.
1. Our booth became a place to explore possibilities
At our booth, we met filmmakers, producers, creators and other industry professionals, and learned about the diverse projects they were working on.
The conversations covered everything from horror and gore to action, animation and experimental storytelling. We explored how AI could support different stages of their workflows, including storyboarding, previs, and proof of concept in pre-production; B-roll and establishing shots in production; and VFX, upscaling, teasers, key art, and promotional content in post-production and marketing.
We demonstrated image, video, and audio generation, showing how leading Gen-AI models on Moonlite Labs can support diverse creative needs while preserving each project's individual voice.
2. We welcomed the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture to our booth
During the week, TIFF held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the inaugural TIFF: The Market at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey, Head of TIFF: The Market Charles Tremblay, Minister Marc Miller, TIFF Chief Programming Officer Anita Lee, Telefilm Canada Executive Director and CEO Julie Roy, and incoming TIFF Board Chair John Tory attended.
Bailey spoke about the economic contribution of Canada's creative and screen industries.
"People call it 'soft power', but when soft power contributes 12 billion dollars annually to Canada's GDP, that's a 'hard' number."Cameron Bailey
CEO, TIFF
The Honourable Marc Miller highlighted the international role of the new Market.
"The Market will help bring more of Canada to the world and more of the world to Canada."The Honourable Marc Miller
He also visited the Moonlite Labs booth, where he met Founder & CEO Adam Fainman and the team.
3. We brought 30 seconds of creators' ideas to life
As part of our Script-to-Screen activation, we invited filmmakers and content creators to bring us around 30 seconds of a script, scene or concept they were working on, along with any reference images they wanted to use.
The response was overwhelming! What began as a one-day activation extended over several days as more creators joined us to see their ideas come to life. We worked with them live on Moonlite Labs, turning their ideas into scenes, trailers, proofs of concept and promotional content tailored to their creative needs and production workflows.
It was particularly rewarding to see creators' reactions as their own ideas took shape on screen.
4. We spotlighted our partners and creators
Throughout the week, our booth screen featured work from Cream Productions, Black Film Space Manitoba, Covenant Emmanuel, RichToons by Richard Murray, Dr. VR Podcast by Justin Baillargeon, Tiny Ghost Studios, Brice Weber, Invalid Symbol and Dhruv Bahri. We also shared the full showcase lineup after the Market.
Together, the work reflected a wide range of visual styles, stories, genres and creative approaches, highlighting the creative possibilities of AI-assisted storytelling.
5. We spoke with CBC News and Film Picnic
CBC's Naama Weingarten stopped by our booth and spoke with Founder & CEO Adam Fainman about AI and filmmaking.
Her segment explored different perspectives on the use of technology in filmmaking, including filmmakers who choose to create without CGI or AI, as well as Adam's perspective on the opportunities AI can offer.
"The role that AI is playing is allowing to create more projects. So more things are being greenlit as a result."Adam Fainman
Founder & CEO, Moonlite Labs
Film Picnic also stopped by during the Market, complete with their signature spoon-and-fork microphones, to interview Adam about Moonlite Labs and AI filmmaking.
All in all
TIFF: The Market gave us the opportunity to demonstrate Moonlite Labs, connect with people from across the global screen industry and better understand the projects and creative challenges they are working on.
One of our key observations was an openness among professionals from large production houses and studios, as well as independent filmmakers, to exploring how AI could enhance creative and production workflows. The conversations, live demos and work shared by our partners and creators gave us valuable insights to take forward as we continue building Moonlite Labs.
Thank you to everyone who stopped by our booth, shared a project, joined a demo or simply came over to say hello.
We look forward to continuing these conversations beyond TIFF: The Market.
