“You can’t just interview a star on the sidewalk without being interrupted,” jokes a Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) employee when he sees his former colleague Magali Simard in an interview with The duty. The Quebecoise is not the headliner of the cinematic mass, but it’s just like. For the first time in her successful career, the “star” is returning there as an employee of one of the most important studios in the country and she wants to leave her mark there.
Magali Simard joined TIFF straight out of university. Gradually, she moved from rolling posters sent by mail to programming, a position she held for ten years. The job was a dream come true, but the TIFF days are now over. After a stint at the City of Toronto, where she was responsible for attracting productions, among other things, the Stoneham native saw even bigger things: the flourishing world of studios. “It intrigued me to see how Toronto could attract so many major productions. It’s so much bigger than the world of festivals. »
In April, Magali Simard obtained the position of director of industrial relations at the Cinespace studio, the Canadian juggernaut behind The Handmaid’s Tale. The Quebecer wants her studio, “almost invisible” to the general public, to become an important player on the cultural scene.
TIFF presents itself as the perfect opportunity to initiate change and demonstrate that studios “are not just boxes for rent”. Two Cinespace productions — including the German series 1899 — will be premiered there. The festival having once served as a springboard for films like school of rock (school of rock) and American beauty (American Beauty), it could be a showcase for its studio this year: Cinespace has organized a round table for the occasion with television series directors.
A film lover
Magali Simard’s eyes light up when she talks about cinema. Despite her ten years of experience, she felt “almost a child” when she started working in a studio.
Since Magali Simard graduated in 2006, the film industry has grown steadily in Toronto (except during the pandemic). In 2007, TIFF began construction of a headquarters, the TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema. That same year, citing a “crisis” as spending on major productions had fallen by 35% in five years, the City of Toronto created an ambitious strategic plan for the entertainment industry.
Between 2017 and 2021, while she served as the head of film sector development at the City of Toronto, spending on film, television or digital productions increased from $1.8 billion to $2.5 billion.
Bringing worlds together
In 2022, Magali Simard concluded that it was an opportune time to make the leap into the private sector. The local film industry has a bright future, she says, as the number of studios will continue to grow in Toronto. And to finish convincing the manager, the international company TPG Real Estate Partners bought Cinespace for 1.1 billion last November. “1.1 billion, I’m freaking out, I’m interested,” the Quebecer said to herself.
Magali Simard now wishes to bring together long separated worlds, which she herself inhabited: the Toronto cultural scene known to the public — of which TIFF is an emblem — and the production milieu, still in the shadows. Later in the discussion, the Quebecer confides that she has the impression of having “an almost personal mission” to put an end to this separation. It is for this reason that she was hired by Cinespace.
Magali Simard tells Cinespace that she would benefit from having a “cultural flair” and integrating into the community. The round table organized during TIFF stems from this desire. The director plans to eventually initiate an employee development program in Toronto and make the studios more visible in the city. “Before, it was an industry that didn’t want to be seen, but now it’s inevitable: the industry wants to be recognized. I would like what happens in the studios to be celebrated outside the studios,” she notes.
“There is a lot to do,” summarizes the Quebecer, sitting on a terrace in front of the TIFF Bell Lightbox cinema. “Could we have film tourism in Toronto? she asks herself. “Every time I talk about what’s going on in the studios, everyone is intrigued. »
This story is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.