European Film Promotion (EFP) began supporting European film during the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 12 years ago. It began financially supporting, with the assistance of the MEDIA programme, sales agents and producers promoting their European films selected by the festival four years ago.

Around 120 films in the 312 strong 2008 TIFF film programme are European. 42 of these, over one third of the European programme, are receiving financial assistance from the Film Sales Support scheme, including four documentaries and one animated film.

Film Sales Support not only covers half of the promotional costs for films unsold to the North American market but also pays towards the travel costs of some of the talent to attend the festival. European talent attending the festival will include: Antonio Banderas, Liam Neeson and Richard Eyre for The Other Man; German Oscar-winner Caroline Link with her new film A Year Ago in Winter; Roschdy Zem in The Girl from Monaco; and Colin Firth for Easy Virtue.

Also during Toronto this year, European Film Promotion's national representatives within a network of 28 European agencies will meet and jointly debate about opportunities to increase the visibility of European films abroad. This year EFP will specifically meet with South American buyers.

UK film and talent supported by EFP and the MEDIA Programme in Toronto:
Better Things directed by Duane Hopkins (Celluloid Dreams)
Easy Virtue directed by Stephan Elliott (Ealing Studios International)
The Other Man directed by Richard Eyre (Ealing Studios International)
Genova directed by Michael Winterbottom (Hanway Films)
Sounds like Teen Spirit: A Popumentary directed by Jamie Jay Johnson (Intandem Films)

UK company The Works International has received support for the Belgian film Unspoken directed by Fien Troch, and Velvet Octopus (UK) receives support for the UK/Hungary/France co-production of The Secret of Moonacre directed by Gabor Csupo.