Piers Handling studied History and Philosophy at Queen’s University. A
light went on for him when he walked into two films by the iconoclastic
Godard. While working for the Canadian Film Institute, a second light
when on when he was exposed to Quebec cinema through the works of
Gilles Carle and Jean-Pierre Lefebvre. Piers began to research and
publish books and articles on Canadian cinema, and worked for the NFB
on the feature documentary Has Anybody Here Seen Canada? He lectured on
Canadian film at Carleton and Queen’s Universities before joining the
Festival of Festivals in 1982. Appointed Programme Director in 1987, he
became Director and CEO in 1994, when the Festival was renamed. Piers
has organized numerous programmes over the past twenty-five years for
TIFF, and has curated programmes for the Sundance, Havana and Rotterdam
film festivals, as well as for the British Film Institute. His books
include monographs on David Cronenberg and Don Shebib, and he has
written numerous articles. Piers has sat on many film festival juries,
including Tokyo, Rotterdam and Torino; he is a member or past member of
the boards of Tafelmusik, the Canadian Film Centre and Luminato, and
sits on the advisory councils for Telefilm Canada, Ontario’s Minister
of Culture, and the Mayor of Toronto.