The Toronto International Film Festival announced that it laid off 12 full full-time staff members across several departments in a "restructuring" on Thursday. 

According to TIFF's vice-president of public relations and communications Judy Lung, setbacks from the pandemic as well as this year's SAG-AFTRA strike were the two main factors in motivating the restructuring. 

The layoffs come just three months after the not-for-profit cultural organization hosted a scaled-down version of its annual September festival, which lacked its usual celebrity presence due to the actor's strike at the time. 

The American actors' union SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild — American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) was on strike over a labour dispute with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) from July 14 to Nov. 9. 

For @blogTO - As #tiff23 is about to gear up I worry about the state of the festival while hoping to see it thrive long into the future.

With thanks to @rachel_is_here and @patmullen87 who helped get things correct.https://t.co/IBat8ZSEjN

— Jason Gorber (@filmfest_ca) September 6, 2023

Combined with the impact of the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, it resulted in the loss of approximately 45,000 jobs and an estimated $6.5 billion loss to the economy of southern California. 

Both of the strikes contributed to the biggest interruption to the American film and television industries since the pandemic. On Nov. 8, a tentative deal between the two sides was reached, and the strike officially ended the following day.

In the lead-up to the 48th annual TIFF festival, organizers acknowledged that the strike was likely to impact the event, because it prevented some actors from making promotional appearances to support their films. 

TIFF is going to look completely different this year due to Hollywood strikes https://t.co/CzKQ4dNyBx #Toronto #TIFF

— blogTO (@blogTO) September 5, 2023

"Like many in the arts and entertainment sector, we are continuing to recover from the pandemic as well as the setback of this year's SAG-AFTRA strike," Lung said in a statement on Thursday.

"We have undertaken a strategic review of our business and put in place measures that will optimize our year-round and festival operations and offerings to better serve our stakeholders." 

This most recent layoff at TIFF follows another in 2020, which saw a 17 per cent cut of the organization's full-time staff — 31 employees to be exact — due to the devastating impacts of the pandemic on the film industry. 

TIFF is also set to lose Bell as its leading sponsor at the end of 2023.