The top executives from Apple’s Worldwide Video Content team will be travelling to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) this month to shop for new content, Variety reports. According to the report, Zack Van Amburg and/or Jamie Erlicht — the duo that Apple hired last year to head up its video ambitions — are slated to show up at the Canadian film festival fully prepared “with checkbooks in hand” to make content acquisitions for Apple’s streaming entertainment service.
Apple execs will face a competitive landscape, however, with top buyers from other streaming services also on-hand at TIFF, including Amazon Studios new head Jennifer Salke, along with execs from Hulu and Netflix, who have been attending various film festivals for years. This year, however, represents Apple’s first foray into film festivals, suggesting that the company may be taking a more serious look at original films for its new content service, after numerous reports of its aggressive push into high-profile television series projects.