Piers Handling

0:06When did that change? When did TIFF become a major award season player? I'd say probably 2000 with American Beauty in a significant way and since then it's over the last 14 years We've had so many of the People's Choice Award films winners go on to Best Picture So I think Toronto is actually kind of acted as a bellwether I think five of the last 10 or or so have gone on to Win the Oscar for Best Picture and lots of other nominations as well. Has that ever planned in the timing like it's it's at a perfect time of the year not at all to work So the festival in the early days was in October the very first festival is in October and then the second year They moved in September and I don't think anyone really knew I mean this was 38 years ago They didn't have a clue because release patterns were very very different at that point in time you have to remember

0:54So it's only been I would say in the last 15 years that Toronto has become a serious platform for Oscar films I mean it happened in the 90s it for sure but it wasn't it was more for best foreign language films and Maybe some you know actors would get nominated etc etc and pictures did as well And we had films like Princess Bride for instance that went on to a lot of nominations and others But it was really American Beauty was the film that put us on the map in terms of awards It really did because it was a film that came here DreamWorks didn't really know what they had with that film They thought it was a dark film They wanted to take it to a festival see how it played of course the play through the roof here It won our audience award and then they built their campaign around that and then it went on to win Best Picture and a lot of other Awards as well. So at that point in time, I think for the studios is not just about awards by the way

1:42It's also about clout in the in the box office in the marketplace So at that point in time there were a number of films that broke out of Toronto that went crashed through the hundred million dollar box office barrier in North America That's significant and I mean the studios love awards and all that kind of stuff But I think they're always a little skeptical at skeptical about going to festivals because the film is kind of preceded somewhat marginal more for an Artio audience cine files, but when Toronto broke through that barrier and there was so many films And I can't remember all the names at this point in time But there were a lot of films that broke through that a hundred million dollar barrier and Hollywood then really paid attention Because not only was it for awards, but it was also for the box office and at the end of the day of course That's what it's all about. How do you decide you're talking about cine files in Artie films

2:27How do you decide I mean there's no massive, you know those tentpole summer blockbusters at film festivals usually How do you decide between art and and commerce? I guess in that regard actually Toronto? I think we don't decide it's a mix of the two it really we embrace all Different zones of cinema genres of cinema. It's the complete gamut actually From the biggest films with the biggest stars in the world to incredibly small low-budget experimental weird wacky You know films that are shot for ten thousand dollars on cell phones that kind of thing is there anything like that? This you that's interesting well We've got some one of the films that I'd love a lot actually an Iranian film shot in France because she's left Iran is a film that uses I'd say 50% cell phone footage from the green revolution in 2008 the rest of it shot in an apartment, but it's

3:15It shows how some people with no resources at all can make this is a really wonderful film by the way What's it called red rose Iranian film Iranian French production and it's you know an example of one of those films where with just Pure creativity and imagination you make a stunning piece of work and it'll be picked up in festivals But there's a lot of very cheap low-budget films that we show in the festival and you have everything in between You know the full gamut mid-budget films and there's a lot of major stars now who are dropping down from the tent pole films You know they they obviously earn a great living and get paid great salaries for those so they can make the good ones exactly But they want to you know they want to be challenged they want to work in more interesting words They don't want to just do special effect stuff I mean that must be you know challenging in its own way But you know performing in front of green screen all the time must have its limitations

4:01So I think they sort of want to deal with me on more human intimate stories Maybe subject oriented you know films about politics films about contemporary situation poverty immigration whatever So you have a lot of major stars actually appearing in those types of films I mean our opening night film the judge you know has a huge cost Robert Danny jr. Robert develop Billy Bob Thornton and they're in a film that is kind of throwback in a way And it's a small intimate drama. It's really well made father and son story But it's not a tent pole film, you know, it's not full of special effects It's really human relationship story. I'm glad you talked about a little bit cuz I'm like I said I'm not allowed to mention basically anything but tell me about some stuff that surprised you this year There's a terrific first Canadian film which I'm kind of advocating for a film called Corbo first-time film done by a young director Mattu Denny

4:47I was very impressed with this it deals with the Canadian terrorism in the 60s the FLQ So well before you know became sort of a current topic of interest with Al-Kaden in 9-11 And this is a really smart Intelligent well-made film beautifully shot to by the way and wonderful performances by a really young cast I was really impressed with this film. I saw a terrific Second feature by a young French woman filmmaker called the great man the condom Which I loved as well. It deals with a couple of people French foreign Legion believe it or not who are in Afghanistan This where the film starts, but it turns into a father-son relationship as well as This foreign Legion soldier moves back to France. I was very impressed with that film One of my favorites as well is a very strange French film again directed by a woman a lot of women directors Pascal Feral called bird people

5:40Charles, sorry Josh Charles exactly. Yeah, he's in the film and I won't spoil this film at all But it's completely unexpected in terms of the narrative turn it takes seems to be what he's doing these days just unexpected things Which is great You know it's terrific when an actor sort of does those kinds of things shakes up their career Mm-hmm Steve Corral and one of the most interesting films of the year as Fox catcher Which I think will go on to many nominations. He is brilliant in the film absolutely brilliant and this is a steep girl You will not recognize I didn't know it was him. Yeah, you don't know I try to go in It's a really smart intelligent film. I was very very impressed with that. Mr. Turner, you know, filming the great great British painter JMW Turner Michael Lee's film. I thought was superb There's a wonderful another French film because I see a lot of French French films. I love French cinema called called may

6:26Allah bless you which is based on the true story of the filmmaker himself and His experiences as a French Islamic as a French Muslim in contemporary French society I thought was brilliant black and white unbelievably well shot and also really really smart provocative Roger Waters the wall, you know for those pink Floyd fans. They're looking for you know kind of a blast out You know experience It's really quite something in a very personal film for Roger because it goes back to the roots of the wall in all kinds of ways You know exports his own family history, which is very moving his father and grandfather were both killed in the two World Wars So that you know I feel I think it's really quite extraordinary too But there's you know a lot of stuff in between but those are probably you know some of the highlights that I would Would you know drop in on everyone when I when I saw I was talking to everyone asked me the same question

7:13How do they choose the movies? I know you probably answered that question a gazillion times, but everyone so how do you choose the movies? Well, I think what you're looking for I mean you choose the movies by traveling the world and going to film festivals And then there's a lot of private trips we take to screening rooms and all over the world But in terms what we're looking for you're looking for something that intrigues you the challenges you that really excites you individually as a programmer You're also looking for something that you think is going to play to a wider audience But of course you're the first audience in many cases. We're seeing this film is the public for the very first time We're often the very first outsider who's seen the movie So that's pretty terrific and you get really excited about a film. I mean that says something it really does So those films I think are the easy ones you know the ones that really excite you Yeah, it's absolutely a slam dunk I mean when I saw a slum dot some dog millionaire for their first time in a London screening room

8:01It was like wow you knew this is going to work with an audience. It was so fantastic it just pulled all the right buttons or hit all the right buttons and So you know there's those types of films and there's other types of films You're sure a little quieter a little bit more difficult a little bit more challenging You're looking for those as well. You realize it's a different kind of audience some dog millionaires obviously Populous from mass audience, but you're also looking to make sure that the cine files are really really happy That there's critically Intelligent engaged smart films you're looking for films that do say something about the world that they're dealing with topical issues Maybe in a difficult way You know some films may be more subject oriented and artists professional in terms of their filmmaking Others may be incredibly slick, but they kind of lack something there. There's a little bit of an empty core

8:48So you're looking for something that I think engages all of those different elements, you know the mind the heart As well as technically it's really put together well, but I think that's probably a secondary interest It's more does it hit you does it engage you and is it really gonna grab a large audience? Hmm talking about slum dog and just Just the way it looked and the way it was shot At least the way I perceive filmmaking it's changed It's changed everything with the DSLR is everything. How is it? How's it changed filmmaking the way you've seen it? I think there's obviously a lot more experimentation. I mean some dog was one of those films It was the digital revolution was just beginning in a funny way. This is about seven eight years ago I mean we all knew it was coming filmmakers kind of exploring it dealing with it. They weren't quite sure a lot of people We're still shooting in film some are But it was you know the technology was just starting to become

9:36Really professional where people like Danny etc etc were felt comfortable with it and I agree It's got that kind of in the streets on the run feel to it It's really energetic and it captures the energy of children really really well And I'm not sure that a 35 millimeter camera really heavy or even you know steady cam could have captured that in the same way So I think it actually did you know lead to a certain kind of technical breakthrough Just in terms of being more spontaneous being with your actors, you know be closer to them I think digital revolution has certainly done that I mean some filmmakers the bait's still on the certain filmmakers that are still you know shooting in film Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. Yeah and all the power to them is still amazing or basically. Yeah. Yeah on the other end of the digital stuff Distribution I want to talk to you about just because it's completely changed in the last year or two like it's all and it's still changing

10:24Netflix and internet and maybe that I don't know what it's called. I guess the second tier I guess it goes theaters then there's a second tier and then yeah, yeah, exactly Yeah, how does that work for TIFF like would you prefer it if films just went straight theater to To I guess VOD or DVD or whatever we call it now. You do actually yeah out of TIFF. Yeah, it helps It helps the filmmakers I mean I think anything that helps a filmmaker at the end of the day is good for the industry of course So for certain young filmmakers who probably aren't gonna get theatrical distribution Especially when it comes to foreign language films, which is very difficult to get into the North American marketplace This is an option and an opportunity for them Last year had to deal with the MEL And I think it was picked up by a number of filmmakers where they are offered a distribution deal to certain filmmakers And I think you know a good dozen filmmakers are so picked up that deal And it's I think otherwise those films just would not have they have the two festival screenings and three festival screenings here

11:14That's it. They wouldn't have had any life So there is this you know life the so-called long tail for a number of filmmakers I think the major films is still always gonna go through the the traditional model at this point in time They'll do theatrical you know three months later. It's on DVD VOD sometimes you know simultaneous V VOD or it's a slight delay in VOD and then broadcast etc etc all the insularies And I think it's gonna take a little while for all of those so-called windows to start narrowing where you actually see everything happening on the same day There's been some experiments of course around the world where you know day and day like everything breaks at the same time theatrical VOD DVD so it just all goes out in some cases VOD or DVD has actually preceded a theatrical release You know people are out there playing and experimenting

12:00There's not a lot of it and a lot of those have those experiments haven't gone very you know They haven't been very successful. So I think you're still out. That's fine I mean these are the guys leading the way at some point in time I think the windows are really really gonna narrow But of course, you know the exhibitors are very very nervous about this because they want to push people You too into cinemas And how does that how does that change for you as cinema as people start having these massive TVs in their house and people watching movies on phones How does it change the theater experience? Well, we're running theaters year-round in our building we've got five screens But I still think there's a desire in the part of many people to actually see a film on the big screen And to be honest my feeling is the tablets and you know phones etc. etc. Are not our enemy there the opposite actually they're your friend They're educational they expose the work to a much a wider audience who at the end of the day are intrigued and want to see

12:522001 which they've seen on their cell phone on our tablet They actually want to see a 70 millimeter print so we're running the Cooper exhibition this fall in our building It's gonna be a complete recs exhibition of many of the artifacts etc. etc. from Kubrick's movies But we're also doing a complete retrospective of of of Kubrick's work We'll have many of the guests including his wife will be here Douglas Trumbull who did the special effects for 2001 So I still think in fact whenever whenever we show 2001 we have our own 70 millimeter print it packs the place So there's still that curiosity about seeing it on the big screen and there's nothing quite like the communal live Experience I mean that's one of the reasons the festival is so successful the fact that we're delivering a lot of the real live movie stars and Directors in front of a live audience. There's you know that that synergy that connection is fantastic

13:40It's like live sports, you know of course, you know all these things have been televised around the world etc. etc. There's nothing like going to the World Cup live I mean I watch the World Cup on you know, I'm a huge football fan I watch it on television, but there's nothing like you know whenever I'm in London. I go to live football matches because I love it Soccer matches what's your team your club? Sorry Tana MOSPER ever since I was a kid. I went to an sporting school So Spurs are still my team got you. Yeah, they lost in the weekend sadly That's all right. I think you have plenty on your mind to keep it. Yeah, let's start to the season They won their first two games, but yeah, Michael Moore 25th anniversary Roger. Yeah, right. I remember the first I remember that year actually really really well a couple of memories And those days enter into your film into a festival was very different and of course, you know

14:27People always want to know how do you enter a film into a festival? Well, many people have friends producers reps distributors, etc. etc. Michael had none of that stuff He just simply sent in his DVD. Okay, those days was probably a video. Yeah, it was a VHS But he what he was smart was he actually phoned that had a print traffic This is the guy who received all those video cuz that's in those days and started to talk up the movie and Roger is or Michael is a you know natural salesperson. He really really is and The word of mouth just started to travel through the the staff He was this guy Roger Moore who's promising on bringing up a whole bunch of people from Flint, Michigan It was gonna be a fantastic screening etc. etc. We all started talking about the movie before we even saw it when we saw the film You know the film is terrific the documentary etc. So we had no idea how big it was gonna be

15:15So we actually ran it in a really small cinema about 300 seats and these were the days before You actually you didn't choose your films before you arrived at the festival. You just lined up and went right? Okay So it was first come first served well We realized we made a mistake we went to this cinema and there were thousands of people lined up outside thousands None of them could you know the first 300 got in the other 2,000 people weren't gonna get in we since worked out You know the subtleties of the system the ticketing system But it was you know the the public knew about this film before I don't know how they found out I mean Michael was this is a natural promoter He just sort of managed to make things happen and that film went went on to win our audience award You know people's Joyce award that year and got picked up major distribution deal I think Warner Brothers bought it for a multi-million dollar deal and that put up you know Michael Moore in the map

16:03How do you think he changed documentary filmmaking? In lots of ways he did because I don't think the documentary filmmaker at the time inspired to theatrical release and Suddenly you had this filmmaker breaking through with a very popular subject of course it was incredibly contemporary It was all about unemployment in the States and there was an audience for this Warner Brothers took a huge gamble I'm not quite sure why you know this is a major studio. It wasn't even one of the small smaller you know boutique distributors that point of time. This is a major studio starting to play and It started to it just kind of broke through for documentary filmmaking Of course, I would say the last 10 or 15 years since I mean this you know Roger me was what 20 25 years ago. Yeah, was it 25 20? I think you guys are promoting the 25th century of a century so Roger me was 25 years ago

16:51And I would say in the last 15 years last 20 years a lot of documentaries have actually gone on to theatrical release And there's been a growing interest in documentaries Think people have kind of discovered the joys of documentary filmmaking what you can do in terms of storytelling good subject I mean, you know truth is strange in fiction in all kinds of ways and I think there's still that desire as You know, maybe the movies have moved more towards special effects You know the kind of outlandish comic book heroes people are looking actually for a relief from that They want a sense of just how daily people live their lives and or just insights into you know people like Kind of remembers name now Roger who etc. So it was the you know, I think the CEO of General Motors Mm-hmm. It's not I kind of want that insight into the you know the back scenes

17:36I mean, Ero Morris has done a fantastic job with you know films on Donald Rumsfield, etc, etc So yeah, there's definitely that you know in the hands of skilled documentary filmmakers They can make a subject completely fascinating. So can Bill Murray that was a terrible segue The other question people had for me was what is Bill Murray day that great documentary filmmaker? Yeah He probably would be a future artist and at it. Yeah, he would he doesn't Yeah, it'd be certainly funny and engaging and interesting. So Bill Murray's from the festival with a film called St. Vincent and Yeah, I mean people love Bill Murray. They really do you know kind of enigmatic funny man in all kinds of ways of course He's got a strong association with Ivan Reitman and We're in the building that was formerly Ivan Reitman and his two sisters father's property

18:22So we have that kind of connection as well. So we're gonna be showing three films. I guess on Bill Murray day stripes Ghost busters and groundhog day. So two Ivan's films and the Harold Reimas And I expect that Bill will be around that day and some kind of you know way shape or form and There'll be some hopefully some announcements in terms of what his you know involvement will be but very exciting for us Obviously, I mean a major icon It goes to show you again the breadth of the festival the fact that we're attracting somebody like Bill Murray who comes You know gives up a day like this of his life or you know says yeah, let's do a bull Murray day the film festival And were you able to get in contact with him because I hear he's basically impossible to get I haven't talked about okay No, I have not I haven't certainly met him a number of times, you know wonderful charming guy very funny, but I I'm not sure you can actually reach him by phone

19:09Yeah, there's a yeah, there's a whole article someone wrote it recently Talk about Ivan Reitman Jason Reitman's got a film this year men women and children Labor Day last year. Yeah, he's really well for me I think he's the best filmmaker in the world. I don't know where he sits for you But how have you seen his progression over the years? We started with Jason's short films and then we ran his first feature film Thank you for smoking years ago and then went on to Juneau and up in the air So you know we've had a long association with him We've shown basically every single one of his features always on the same day same time same theater I think it's a Ryerson seven o'clock on the first Saturday of the festival. Yeah, he's a very superstitious that way And he insists on that time slot. I agree Jason's I think you know what I love about Jason's work He's he's beginning to range through it's very difficult to actually get a sense in terms of who he is as a filmmaker

19:57Because he's ranging through so many different genres and so many different topics I mean this is highly topical. You know it's about kids and parents and the internet world and I mean I think people are gonna be blown away by it because what he does technically with the film So I mean he's got an I for a subject. He's really got his pulse I think on on the contemporary and I just admire him so much because he's prepared to take chances as a film maker do different things and He's working with some tremendously talented people as well at the same time Is there an else like that the superstitions that always want same daytime and all that kind of stuff nobody quite like Jason No, nobody quite like Jason People no, you know every film I think is different for them So, you know they there some filmmakers want early in the festival some people like this particular house But on furthers they don't really care. It's in the hands of their distributor

20:44I mean, you know David Cronenberg. He's opened the festival. He's had gallows You know sometimes it's Roy Thompson Hall and sometimes it's the elegant sometimes Princess of Wales David at the end of the day Just kind of takes the guidance of his distributor You know he has a feel for it, but he doesn't really insist but you know Jason absolutely that's his slot and you know He owns that slot whenever he has a movie. That's cool I only have a few minutes left So I do want to talk about closing on King Street because that's kind of cool It's very cool and what's and what's gonna be happening And so we moved into this building four years ago And we did a partial street closure last year and this year is going to be complete Street closure from the first Thursday to Sunday and then partial afterwards from University to I Guess Peter Street. So very exciting for us We're gonna have all kinds of activations and music food Actors acrobatic, you know just wait and see but there's a lot of music building the stage and it'll be fantastic because people who just want to come down and

21:37Stargaze and just sort of Soak up the festival atmosphere and not necessarily see a film will be able to come down here if they want to see a film Of course, there'll be millions of people lined up at Roy Thompson Hall Princess of Wales Scotia Bank just around the corner and our own very you know our own building so the place will really be buzzing But I think it's phenomenal we closed down the street when we opened the building For like a half a day I think it was and it was really quite something it was so exciting I mean to turn this into a pedestrian mall for the first four days is gonna be incredible You've got so many guests from around the world. I mean four thousand industry delegates from international from around the world and other thousand You know, it's about five six thousand professionals working Toronto and then of course you've got the Toronto audience too so I think a lot of people are just gonna come down and Suck up the atmosphere. Hopefully you know the weather's gonna be good. It looks like it's gonna be great this weekend

22:23And they'll just get an opportunity to kind of see stars maybe here's some music have fun time You know eating the restaurants across the way and just sort of you know have a great time It's good way to close it. That's great. Cool. Thanks. Thanks. Appreciate it