February 22, 2016
Mayor John Tory will be in Los Angeles from February 24 to 26 to drive investment in Toronto's $1-billion film, television and digital media industry.
"Toronto's film and television sector is a growing source of jobs and economic growth," said Mayor Tory. "I will be promoting our city to studios and entertainment industry representatives in Los Angeles as part of our efforts to attract more of these productions to Toronto."
Mayor Tory will meet with 11 prominent studios including CBS, Paramount, Sony and Warner to encourage them to expand their presence in Toronto. Collectively these studios currently have over $800 million in development planned for Toronto in 2016.
“Mayor Tory understands the significance our sector represents culturally and financially to Toronto and his mission to Los Angeles is an indicator of that,” says Jonathan Ahee, co-chair of the Toronto Film, Television and Digital Media Board. “The Mayor's mission is designed to foster even more prosperity in our industry, which is seeing greater employment opportunities and growth for Toronto based companies and we whole-heartedly support his initiative.”
The Mayor will also meet with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and host a networking reception to foster enhanced business relations between Toronto and Los Angeles screen industry representatives. This event will be held prior to An Evening with Canada's Stars, an annual Los Angeles event celebrating Canadian excellence in the entertainment industry.
Toronto currently has one of the largest screen-based (film, television, commercials, animation) industries in North America, employing more than 25,000 people. For the fifth consecutive year, this important sector has contributed more than $1 billion to Toronto’s economy and 2015 is forecasted to be one of the busiest production years in Toronto’s history.
Mayor Tory's Los Angeles business mission is a collaborative public and private sector initiative supported by Toronto’s community of screen-based service providers.
“We are very honoured that Mayor Tory supports our Film and Television industry in Toronto and is reinforcing our commitment to the Studio Executives and Producers in Los Angeles, a city famous for being the mecca of film and television,” said Neishaw Ali, President/Executive Producer of SPIN VFX.
"While our industry today is very fortunate to benefit from both domestic and foreign-based production, our L.A.-based clients have kept coming back for 30 years, helping to keep our crews sharp, our locations and studios busy and our actors employed. So Mayor Tory's meetings in L.A. are critical in conveying the highest-level appreciation for their patronage, the desire to accommodate even more production, and the reality that Toronto is a world-class city that any director, producer or creative individual would be thrilled to live in for the duration of their film or TV project,” said Jim Mirkopolous, Vice President of Cinespace Film Studios.
“Pinewood Toronto Studios congratulates Mayor John Tory’s initiative in leading this important mission to visit our film and television clients in Los Angeles – to listen to their needs and to share recent updates about Toronto’s first class film industry. Pinewood hosted the biggest feature film ever shot in Toronto last year because Toronto (Ontario) has stable tax credits, highly-trained crews, and world-class, purpose-built studios,” said Blake Steeles, President of Pinewood Toronto Studios.
Toronto is Canada's largest city, the fourth largest in North America, and home to a diverse population of about 2.8 million people. It is a global centre for business, finance, arts and culture and is consistently ranked one of the world's most livable cities. For information on non-emergency City services and programs, Toronto residents, businesses and visitors can visit
http://www.toronto.ca, call 311, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, or follow us @TorontoComms.
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Media contacts:
Keerthana Kamalavasan, Office of the Mayor, 647-460-7507, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Shane Gerard, Strategic Communications, 416-397-5711, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
