The Very Modest Beginnings of TIFF

At the outset, the only media friend the Toronto Film Festival had was George Anthony.

The 40th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival kicks off tonight with a gala screening of the Jake Gyllenhaal Fox Searchlight comedy-drama Demolition. And it’s safe to say that only a very few of the attending journalists, dignitaries and locals are personally acquainted with just how modest a beginning this event had.

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For a refresher on that front, we turn to Will Sloan’s wonderful oral history of TIFF, posted to Torontoist. The freelance writer spoke with lead programmer Piers Handling, the event’s still surviving original co-founders and many more folks, like Chaz Ebert.

Here’s just one strand of the oral history.

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