The United States Ambassador to Canada Bruce Heyman and his wife Vicki joined the recently arrived Consul General Juan A. Alsace and his wife Nancy to host the third annual reception in honor of the Toronto International Film Festival, and U.S. and Canadian Film Partnerships on September 14th, 2015 at the Spoke Club in Toronto.
Held to celebrate the festival and create an opportunity for U.S. filmmakers and industry representatives to meet with their Canadian counterparts to discuss potential partnerships, this reception also honored the American Friends of TIFF, an independent U.S.-based non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the cultural, educational, and industry programming of TIFF, such as festival programming, major exhibitions, archives, and other activities of interest to American patrons.
Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, Lisa de Wilde, Chair of TIFF’s Board of Directors and CEO of TVOntario, Kristine Murphy, Director, Industry Development Group, Ontario Media Development Corporation, Piers Handling, and TIFF’s Director and CEO, Michele Maheux, TIFF’s Executive Director & COO, joined many other honorable guests at this late-afternoon reception. In his remarks, Ambassador Heyman celebrated the U.S. –Canadian partnership at TIFF commenting that “This year at TIFF, there are 82 films being featured from the United States. Countless others are multi-country collaborations which include American directors, actors, and producers. Of the 71 countries participating in TIFF, eight of the twenty gala screenings are from the United States which shows the strength of American filmmaking at TIFF – and the importance of TIFF to the United States.”
More photos from the reception are in our Flickr gallery.
