Scalpers Hijack TIFF Screenings With $400 Resale Tickets: ‘It’s Genuinely Insane’

The Toronto International Film Festival is using Ticketmaster to book seats this year, and even though opening night is more than a week away, tickets for high-profile films are already going for more than ten times their face value.

Festivalgoers are not happy about the high resale prices already popping up.

Opening night film The Boy and the Heron from Hayao Miyazaki is sold out on TIFFs ticketing site via Ticketmaster, but tickets are going for up to $388 Canadian ($285) on ticket reselling site Stubhub. Taika Waititis Next Goal Wins is going for even more, at $416.50 CAD on Ticketmaster.

The premiere of Sylvester Stallones documentary Sly on Sept. 15 still has tickets available directly for $88 CAD, but Ticketmaster is also reselling others for up to $178.50 CAD.

Writer and filmmaker Siddhant Adlakha brought attention to the high resale prices Monday, tweeting, Ticketmaster is a scourge and using it as an official ticketing platform for a film festival is incredibly bizarre. Its genuinely insane that people are allowed to buy and re-sell TIFF tickets pretty much the day they go on sale. The new Miyazaki is going for over $300 US.

Now theyve come for the film festivals, tweeted film editor Amy Duddleston, while the account @TVpartyplanner suggested a solution, Literally all Ticketmaster has to do is make resale only possible through their platform and not allow people to sell for more than they paid.

Even titles in ostensibly less demand such as Youth (Spring), a 212-minute documentary on textile workers, are selling for $53 CAD on Stubhub even though they are still available at the normal $32 CAD price on Ticketmaster.

Though TIFF has used Ticketmaster in the past, this years high-priced resale tickets have come under increased criticism after the ticket sales companys high prices and technical snafus for Taylor Swifts recent tour.

Variety has contacted the Toronto Film Festival for comment.