Media Report: Jewish Film Festival 2018 Overview

Touchwood PR initiated an effective media campaign, which generated extensive coverage in television, print, radio and online media. We were successful in achieving the objectives set at the start of the campaign by generating media coverage and broadening public and media awareness of the Festival. This was done through a strategic media outreach plan and capitalizing on availability of talent, primarily Hal Linden and Ryan Ochoa, which garnered substantial media interest for the Festival.

Highlights of the campaign include:

● Secured media coverage in outlets including Toronto Star, , CP24 Breakfast, Canadian Jewish News, CTV Your Morning, ET Canada’s Facebook Live, Boom 97.3, Sirius XM, Zoomer, among others.

● Secured interviews for Hal Linden and Ryan Ochoa with eight major outlets. Their availability and participation in media interviews raised overall awareness for Festival and demonstrated the value in bringing high-profile talent to the Festival. In addition, knowing their availability months before the Festival was beneficial in allowing us to secure interviews. The press days went smoothly and The Samuel Project team were a delight to work with.

● Secured interviews for TJFF spokespeople in Zoomer Radio/Classical 96.3 and CBC Radio-Canada.

● Secured review coverage for TJFF titles in outlets including NOW Magazine, The Globe and Mail, CIUT 89.5 FM, Fairchild Radio, In The Seats, and Reel Roundup, among others.

● Successfully arranged ticket giveaways with online and radio outlets for films that required an extra support. These outlets promoted the Festival on their social media platforms, raising awareness for the screenings. Impressions Summary

11 Total Clips/Articles: 116 6 Total Impressions: 23,624,962 12 87

➔ Please note that media impression numbers do not fully reflect the total number as we are unable to audit all media coverage ➔ Media impression number includes blogTO and Now Magazine sponsored editorial ➔ Source for media monitoring is Infomart ➔ Source for media impressions is MRP ➔ Full coverage report attached Press Releases and Advisories

PRESS RELEASES

April 3, 2018: - TRUE STORIES ABOUT HEROIC FIGURES BOOKEND THE 26TH TORONTO JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL

April 5, 2018: - TORONTO JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL CELEBRATES HOMEGROWN TALENT MORLEY TORGOV, HARVEY ATKIN AND PAUL SOLES

April 12, 2018: - TORONTO JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2018 LINE-UP

April 17, 2018: - THE MUSEUM AND WINTER HUNT WIN TOP AWARDS AT THE 2018 TORONTO JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL

April 25, 2018: - THE 26TH TORONTO JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL TO WELCOME ACCLAIMED ACTOR HAL LINDEN, INDUSTRY VET PAUL SOLES, CELEBRATED JOURNALIST HANS KNOOP AND MORE

ADVISORIES

April 19, 2018 - April 23, 2018:

- SHALOM BOLLYWOOD advisory sent to South Asian media -ABOVE THE DROWNING SEA advisory sent to Chinese media - EARTH CRIES OUT/LIBYA: THE LAST EXODUS sent to Italian media - ANOTHER PLANET sent to Polish media - THE LAST SUIT/LIGHT OF HOPE sent to Spanish media - CLOSENESS sent to Russian media

INVITATIONS

April 24, 2018: - Toronto Jewish Film Festival Opening Night Media Coverage Media Highlights Click images to view full article, where available

Ryan Ochoa interview on ET Canada Hal Linden and Ryan Ochoa TV interview and Facebook Live on May 3: posted online on May 3 2.6K views, 17 shares, 122 comments Media Highlights Click images to view full article, where available

Hal Linden and Ryan Ochoa TV interview and posted Hal Linden and Ryan Ochoa TV interview and online on May 3 posted online on May 4 Media Highlights

Click images to view full article, where available

Ran online and in print on April 29 Ran online on May 2 and in print on May 3 Media Highlights

Click images to view full article, where available

Ran online on May 3 Ran online on May 4 Media Highlights

Click images to view full article, where available FIVE THINGS TO DO THIS WEEKEND IN TORONTO Review: Disobedience is a devastating and beautiful love story BARRY HERTZ

This past weekend, I paid an overdue visit to the Toronto Jewish Film Festival. (2018 slogan: “It’s complicated.” Oy, the shticky humour of this festival.) While the film I happened to catch – Mikael Buch’s small-scale drama Simon & Theodore – was fine enough, I would have paid double to simply witness the audience reaction to another TJFF selection: Sebastian Lelio’s taboo-busting romance, Disobedience.

Ran online on May 4 Ran online on May 10 and in print May 11 and 18 Media Highlights

Click images to view full article, where available

Hal Linden radio interview on May 3

Ryan Ochoa radio interview on May 3 Media Highlights

Click images to view full article, where available

Ran online on May 17 Ran online on May 12 Ticket Giveaways

Touchwood PR arranged for ticket giveaways with In The Seats, CIUT 89.5 FM, Scene Creek and The Reel Roundup for titles highlighted by the Festival:

● Ancient Law ● Another Planet ● Standing Up ● Juda ● Future '38 ● Outdoors ● Museum

Scene Creek contest for Juda, Another Planet and Standing Up ran on May 3

The Reel Roundup contest for Another Planet, Future ‘38 and Outdoors ran on May 8 Ticket Giveaways

CIUT 89.5 FM on-air contest for The Ancient Law ran on May 3

In the Seats contests for The Museum, Future ‘38 and Outdoors ran on May 7 Challenges & Recommendations

Challenge: There were two instances of social media posts around announcements that were pre-scheduled and did not align with the timing of the official press releases.

Recommendation: Work to streamline communication between the PR team and the social media team to ensure that roll out for all communications are aligned for maximum impact. Allow for flexibility on social media and the website for last minute changes.

Challenge: For Juda which required an extra push, Touchwood PR reached out to an extensive list of genre and TV media including Rue Morgue, Comingsoon.net, TV Junkies, TV, eh?, The Televixen, ScreenAnarchy, Horrortalk.net and Flickering Myth, however, there was limited media interest.

Also, we noticed a few days prior to the screening that the TJFF co-presenting partner, Toronto After Dark was not promoting the screening of Juda as agreed upon. Touchwood PR reached out to After Dark and asked they promote the screening via social media, which they did.

Recommendation: For genre films, we recommend expanding outreach to like minded individuals and organizations to support the screenings and expand the audience, such as Colin Geddes. Challenges & Recommendations (continued)

Challenge: Touchwood PR looked for opportunities for Paul Soles to participate in media interviews in support of the Festival. Paul Soles was already scheduled to do press for his show My 90-Year-Old Roommate and this was a media priority for him. We reached out to the show’s publicist to coordinate efforts and leverage Soles’ existing press opportunities for TJFF. While we did provide the publicist with the TJFF information and messaging they were unable to guarantee support.

Recommendation: There is no particular recommendation for this challenge. We should continue to initiate conversation with guests’ publicity teams in advance of the Festival to see where efforts can be combined/leveraged.

Challenge: While we were aware of this in advance, the overlap between Hot Docs and TJFF did impact media coverage. Some press gave the feedback that during Hot Docs they do not have the bandwidth to cover another Festival.

Recommendation: We understand that this is an ongoing challenge and discussion. From a publicity perspective we were able to leverage attending guests such as Hal and Ryan for media coverage. We recommend continuing to explore and bring such guests for media opportunities. For media that are unable to cover both Hot Docs and TJFF at the same time, the only solution may be in pushing the Festival dates, if that’s a possibility. Recommendations

The following general observations and recommendations are for future Festivals and are not necessarily connected to a challenge.

● Given the success of The Samuel Project press day, we recommend TJFF continue looking for opportunities where high-profile guests can come to town to promote their film at the Festival. These media opportunities raise general awareness about the Festival.

● Consider opportunities to bring on a local high-profile ambassador or potential jury member to help promote the Festival through interview opportunities.

● Local media are interested in films with a topical newsworthy or local angle. It would be beneficial to the PR campaign for programming to take this into consideration when selecting films.

● While media attendance was limited on opening night, continue to extend invitations to media for this event in order to nurture relationships with them.

● Leverage opportunities with media and presenting partners in advance of the Festival for ticket giveaways, and social media and newsletter promotions. Recommendations (continued)

● The advertorials in BlogTO and NOW Magazine were well executed. In future, we encourage notifying the PR team about these opportunities in advance as we can provide suggestions based on our insight and ongoing conversations with media.

● Similar to revising the accreditation process this year, we recommend reviewing and prioritizing blogger accreditation for the Festival in the future. While there are certain relationships that are important for the Festival, there is an opportunity to ensure Festival films are primarily reviewed by trusted media outlets.

● Ideally, press releases should be strategically planned around key newsworthy initiatives. We understand the Festival prefers to issue an Awards Release as an additional media push for the Festival. However, since the award winners are publicly available on the website and programme book prior to issuing the press release, it is not new information announced and not necessarily of interest to media. Therefore, we suggest combining the award winners announcement with a programming announcement. We also recommend alternative approaches to push the award winners such as through social media, website recognition, or a sponsored partnership.

● Update the existing messaging and boilerplate to further define the distinction between TJFF the Festival and TJFF the Foundation. This is an area the PR team can assist with to create clarity for media. Thank You!