By the 30-minute mark of Monday’s Poolman world premiere, the walkouts had become noticeable. The noir comedy helmed by Chris Pine, which bowed in Toronto on Monday night, was the last of a certain specific group of TIFF launches that—for better or worse—came to define this year’s festival: the celebrity directorial debut. For the most part, they were not especially well received, and aside from Patricia Arquette’s Gonzo Girl, none received SAG-AFTRA interim agreements. Since all of these filmmakers also star in their films, this meant they couldn’t show up in Toronto without being at odds with their striking union. Pine’s Poolman got the rawest deal. It was supposed to be projected in 35mm, but tech issues scrapped that plan. Producer Stacey Sher, who admitted to not being accustomed to introducing major movie premieres, had to speak on Pine’s behalf. And the film palpably struggled to connect with the crowd, which seemed to be thinning out by the scene. (Early notices have not been kind.)

A guide to Hollywood’s biggest races

TIFF had announced its lineup shortly after SAG-AFTRA went on strike, and it initially seemed to get lucky that, with most actors presumably unable to attend, big names including Pine, Arquette, Anna Kendrick, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Michael Keaton had another way in with their first films. None had distribution and all felt like potential discoveries, in the wake of recent indie debuts by Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Lost Daughter) and Regina King (One Night in Miami) that received wide critical acclaim and several Oscar nominations. As reality settled into a TIFF that was hampered by a dearth of star power, as well as fear of studio blowback, these movies were mostly left to speak for themselves, and struggled to make their case. An early look at Rotten Tomatoes shows the likes of Arquette’s Gonzo Girl, Thomas’s North Star, and Keaton’s Knox Goes Away trending toward Rotten; indications are that the spread won’t be much better for Poolman.

That leaves one—thrilling—exception in Woman of the Hour, Kendrick’s tense, darkly funny ’70s-set thriller. The stranger-than-fiction account of a working actress’s unknowing encounter with a serial killer on the game show The Dating Game is realized with great panache and confidence by the Oscar nominee and swiftly won over its full-house audience on Friday afternoon. One climactic parking-lot sequence between the two characters is rendered with gorgeously shot nail-biting suspense; the Dating Game scenes carry a comic-surreal quality that emphasizes the movie’s spiky take on American gender politics. Kendrick was not in attendance because of the strike (she plays the female lead—beautifully, at that), with producer Miri Yoon stepping in to read Kendrick’s opening remarks, in which the director called this premiere the biggest moment of her career. You could feel the heartbreak at her not being able to experience it. (Yoon briefly interrupted Kendrick’s statement to assure the crowd that Kendrick was, in fact, “devastated.”)

The decision on the part of Woman of the Hour’s sales team to not seek an interim agreement appears to have paid off, however. The film pulled off the first deal of the festival, and a big one at that: Netflix acquired rights for a reported $11 million, in perhaps a signal from the streamer that it was willing to act quickly on titles that hadn’t already negotiated with SAG. (It’s worth noting that interim agreements’ terms will morph into those of the final deal made between the guild and the AMPTP, whenever that happens.)

The road may still be tougher for the other celeb-helmed titles hoping to get bought out of Toronto. Along with Woman of the Hour, the town’s buzz within the for-sale market has focused on titles like Richard Linklater’s Hit Man, Greg Kwedar’s Sing Sing, Azazel Jacobs’s His Three Daughters, and Michel Franco’s Memory, which won a prize out of Venice. (Both Sing Sing and Memory have interim agreements, with stars Colman Domingo and Jessica Chastain & Peter Sarsgaard, respectively, promoting the projects.)

Because nobody outside of producers and below-the-line crew is on hand for the likes of North Star, Poolman, and Knox Goes Away, they’ve generated comparatively little attention on the ground. The festival market had already slowed considerably post-COVID, dual industry strikes aside, and these movies find themselves in an even tougher spot with both promotion and production largely shut down. Without critical acclaim or big stars to help the push—between this trio of movies, you’ve got Scarlett Johansson, Sienna Miller, Annette Bening, and Al Pacino occupying major roles—the paths forward seem narrower than they might’ve in a more typical year.

“They got scared,” Memory’s Peter Sarsgaard told me of those behind the films in Toronto that declined to seek an interim agreement. “The AMPTP basically said they’re not going to buy them—but that’s just a scare tactic.”

One hopes a movie like Gonzo Girl, at least, isn’t punished for making a deal with SAG. That movie has managed to create some noise, after all. Its world premiere on Thursday attracted screaming fans on King Street for the mere presence of Arquette and her stars, Willem Dafoe and Camila Morrone, who proudly stood together with the blessing of their union. Critics have faulted Gonzo Girl for its structure and pacing, but it’s a thoughtful and considered effort from Arquette, featuring an excellent lead performance from Dafoe as a fictionalized version of Hunter S. Thompson. (The script is based on a novel written by Thompson’s one-time assistant, Cheryl Della Pietra.) It’s the kind of movie that, in a normal Toronto year, would find a willing buyer—in no small part because the talent showed up to gin up the excitement.

That makes a significant difference. “It’s important for talent to get involved, particularly the independent films—that’s why I’m so grateful to hear that we got an interim agreement,” Dafoe told me over the weekend. “We’ve got to keep it going…. If we don’t participate in these film festivals, if we don’t participate in the selling of movies abroad, before you know it we’re all going to be watching German action movies.”