Lil Nas X TIFF Premiere Delayed By 30 Minutes Due To Bomb Threat

The premiere of Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero at the Toronto International Film Festival was briefly delayed on September 9. As Lil Nas X arrived at the screening, event organizers were informed that a bomb threat had been received. Furthermore, law enforcement revealed that the threat had been explicitly made against Lil Nas X. This was due to his status as a Black queer artist. However, the threat was deemed to be a hoax. As a result, the screening was able to go ahead after a 30-minute delay. This is the first major incident to affect TIFF specifically. The festival has introduced new security over the past few years. This was in response to incidents at other festivals and in the wider Toronto area.

“Earlier this evening, we were made aware by the Toronto Police Service of an investigation in the vicinity of the red carpet for the Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero screening. Our standard security measures remained in place during this time and the screening commenced with a slight delay. To our knowledge, this was a general threat and not directed at the film or the artist.” A TIFF spokesperson told Variety. The latter portion of this was later disputed, stating that the threat was made against Lil Nas X specifically.

Lil Nas X Hopes Film Will Help Change The World

The bomb threat is a perfect example of what Lil Nas is hoping to combat with his film. "I know in my lifetime, while I’m here, I’m going to do my best to make the ceiling unreachable to where we can go as Black queer people. And I mean unreachable as, like, it can go above and beyond. I feel like we live in a generation where Black queer people really control culture. And they’re helping really take the world to the next level. And I think that’s going to have an effect on our youth watching us," Nas told Variety.

“I think there are a lot of different layers to the film, which is surprising maybe for a music documentary. I think what was really important was that Montero himself was so transparent in his identity and also his journey toward being the fullest version of his identity that he really wanted to be. And I think sharing that journey with us and going on that journey with his family ended up really becoming the heart of the film. But he’s also able to put himself in perspective as a part of a continuum of other Black queer performers who came before him. I think his reflections on those things became the spine and the heart of the film. It became really important to the narrative, and also to how we understand him as more than just an artist, but understand him as a person," added co-director Zac Manuel.

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