The Venice Production Bridge (VPB), Venice's informal indie film market, opened on 4 September with roughly 4,000 industry attendees, even as a rival market launched by the Toronto International Film Festival prepares to debut the following week. VPB chief Pascal Diot said the new Toronto market, TIFF: The Market, has so far had no impact on his event's numbers, with similar levels of producers, sales agents and distributors attending Venice this year. The development matters because it signals an emerging rivalry between the two festivals extending beyond competition for film premieres into the business side of the industry.

VPB features 37 feature-length fiction and documentary projects and 14 immersive projects on its gap-financing platform, alongside a Book Adaptation Rights Market with 30 publishers and literary agencies, and a "Meet the Streamers" programme involving Netflix, HBO Max and others. Diot argued that Toronto's market, being built as a more traditional "sell-and-buy" venue with exhibition stands, is "not what the industry wants now," though he stopped short of writing off its long-term prospects. The article also notes Venice's particular importance to French cinema, with four French films competing for the Golden Lion this year and Unifrance executives describing the festival as a launchpad for films rather than merely a trading marketplace, and one that is comparatively cost-effective given its European location.