As TIFF CEO Piers Handling prepares to leave, industry talent reflect on his legacy

After nearly four decades of sitting in darkened theatres, Piers Handling is looking forward to exploring the outdoors.

The longtime director and CEO of the Toronto International Film Festival is stepping down from his position after this year's instalment, its 43rd, which runs Sept. 6-16.

And while he plans to continue attending TIFF as a cinephile, he is excited to start other ventures — from travelling and reading, to hitting the slopes and writing a book on the history of film festivals.

"I'm a big outdoors person. I'm a big skier. So I'll be able to ski every day of the week now, whenever I want to, as opposed to just the weekends," Handling said in a recent interview.

"All the summer sports have been taken away from me for basically over 35 years — tennis, swimming, kayaking, sailing — so I'm looking forward to that."

Handling joined TIFF in 1982 and has been CEO and director since 1994, building what was once known as the Toronto Festival of Festivals in the Yorkville neighbourhood into one of the biggest of its kind in the world with its own permanent downtown home and year-round film hub in TIFF Bell Lightbox.

"I feel really proud about the year-round programming we've built up," said Handling, sitting in a lounge in the Lightbox, which includes screening rooms, exhibitions, programs and lectures.

"I don't think people thought that a festival could actually do that. We've turned ourselves into a one-stop shopping, very comprehensive film organization, and into the top echelon of international film festivals."

When Handling leaves, he'll be replaced by a two-headed structure. One co-head is current artistic director Cameron Bailey and the other is Joana Vicente, who has also been appointed executive director.

He's a remarkably bold thinker for a man who seems quite quiet and reserved in many ways, but he's revolutionary.- Cameron Bailey, TIFF's artistic director

Handling hired Bailey in 2008, and together they travelled to screening rooms in far-flung locales as they crafted the festival over the years.

"He's a remarkably bold thinker for a man who seems quite quiet and reserved in many ways, but he's revolutionary," Bailey said.

"The Lightbox is a result of his thinking. Everybody told him it was a crazy idea but he knew that there was a value and that the city was mature enough to support something like this."

Handling was also a mentor and inspiration who was thoughtful and unafraid to voice his opinions and defend them, he said.

"He's both somebody who is an intellectual and an esthete in a way, but he's also an outdoorsman, which is a surprising combination, perhaps," Bailey said.

"He's a great hiker. He used to climb mountains in his younger days. He has that need to be out in nature as well, which most of us who love movies just don't have. We're happy inside but he needs to be outside as well."

J. Miles Dale, the Oscar-winning Toronto producer behind The Shape of Water, called Handling a "visionary" for building TIFF into a year-round cultural mainstay and the festival itself into "a powerhouse."

There's Cannes but really after that there's TIFF. He not only saw how to take it to that next level but he did it, which was I think the trickiest of all.- J. Miles Dale, producer of

"There's Cannes but really after that there's TIFF," Dale said. "He not only saw how to take it to that next level but he did it, which was I think the trickiest of all."

TIFF senior programmer Steve Gravestock said Handling nurtured scores of Canadian talent and made the festival grow.

"He turned it from a really strong festival into one that's treated very seriously, both because he paid attention to the art but he also paid attention to the business, to the industry," Gravestock said.

"I don't know all the other festival directors but I can't imagine anybody loves movies more than he does. It's really heartening. When I'm like, 'I've seen enough,' he's still going. You get that love when he talks about his favourite directors. I've never heard anybody analyze a movie, break it apart, as intelligently or as clearly as he does."

'A real national treasure'

Director Jennifer Baichwal, who is at this year's festival with Anthropocene: The Human Epoch, called Handling a "true cinephile" and "an incredible gentleman."

"He's a real national treasure, in my opinion, and I'm sad that he's going," Baichwal said.

"I also think it's OK, because it's the beginning of the next chapter, but he leaves a real legacy and they're going to be big shoes to fill."

Filling those shoes involves moving forward on TIFF's five-year strategic plan, which began in January of this year.

He's a real national treasure, in my opinion, and I'm sad that he's going.- Jennifer Baichwal, film director

Bailey helped draft the plan, which he said aims to listen to TIFF's audience and understand who they are, what they want and how the organization can play a role in their lives.

"We need to reach people in their homes; we need to reach them on their phones," Bailey said.

"We need to understand that their appetite for art that challenges them, and that goes beyond the commercial mainstream, has many different articulations — and it's not just coming to one event in one place one time of year that will satisfy that. They want that always on in their lives, and we think we can provide that."