Q&A: Toronto festival director Piers Handling

Piers Handling has led the Toronto International Film Festival since 1994, and he has made it an industry must-attend and a launchpad for fall Oscar contenders. Now he's pulled off another mission impossible: Launching Bell Lightbox, the festival group's year-round headquarters that will open its doors Sept. 12. Bell Lightbox in a stroke ticks off a number of career goals for Handling: creating a festival hub for press and industry attending TIFF and a permanent home in Toronto for cinema fans and giving locals more than a 10-day event in September. That's a long way for someone who joined TIFF as a programmer in 1982, becoming programming director five years later on his way to being named festival director and CEO in 1994. The Hollywood Reporter's Etan Vlessing talked with the festival's CEO and director about TIFF's 35th edition and possibly his crowning achievement.