Free Community Film Screenings in Toronto May Soon Be Coming to an End

Should cinema be treated as a luxury or as a necessary form that brings people together? That’s the question facing another Toronto institution today as news surfaces of the city’s beloved Toronto Outdoor Picture Show facing dire financial straits. Beginning as the Christie Pits Film Festival in 2011, TOPS became a registered non-profit organization in 2015 with a focus on presenting film programming to areas throughout Toronto, including Christie Pits Park, Fort York, Bell Manor Park, and Corktown Common. Over 25,000 people come out each summer for its free screening series, but TOPS Founder and Artistic & Executive Director Emily Reid shared in a recent interview with Toronto’s CityNews that it may not have enough funding for next year.

“We’ve tried to keep our costs low, but we don’t sell tickets, so it’s always about what kind of funding we can bring in,” Reid said. “And it’s a bit of a game to apply for everything and just hope that this year they’re all going to fall together and they always have except for this year.”

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Each year, a theme is chosen, such as 2022’s “Curtains Up!,” which centered performance-related films, or this year’s “On the Job,” which has included screenings of “Out of Sight” and “Modern Times” and features upcoming screenings of “Fire of Love” and “Perfect Days.” Reid told CityNews it costs $570,000 each year to run the programs, but the organization is $70,000 short of that figure to balance this year.

In an email to IndieWire, Reid said, “Despite our more than 50% attendance growth since 2022, public funding has decreased since then, while our costs have risen with inflation. As a free, public festival without any barriers to entry, it’s not sustainable to operate it under the current funding limits.”

Reid went on to discuss the importance of having public arts programming that doesn’t have a cost associated with it and how rare it is to have that in a city as big as Toronto. It doesn’t only benefit communities, but also local filmmakers whose short films are featured alongside each screening.

“The impact that we’ve heard from local artists,” Reid said to CityNews, “on what that means to their career to have a short film that otherwise might not be seen, to have that many eyes, to have a very welcoming, unpretentious environment to show their films in, is really poignant.”

Cinephiles can donate to Toronto Outdoor Picture Show by visiting its website. Its current slate of screenings runs until August 25.

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