From bookish kid to the top of TIFF: Cameron Bailey on meeting ‘Steven,’ the joy of film and moving on without Bell

The CEO of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) wasn’t really into movies as a kid.  
Growing up in England and Barbados, Cameron Bailey didn’t connect with Hollywood productions, instead preferring what he saw as the more intimate storytelling of music and books.
It wasn’t until pursuing an undergraduate degree in literature at Western University, and taking a few film courses on the side, that Bailey was introduced to the rich history of film that extends beyond the big budget blockbuster. He was hooked.
“You really feel like you are in that filmmaker’s world, they are telling you how life looks from their perspective; that was new and that was exciting,” he said. “That can open you up to new ideas, new ways of seeing the world, and that’s what we try to do every day at TIFF.”
Cameron, who has worked for TIFF on and off since 1990 and was named CEO in late 2021, still believes in the transformative power of cinema, even in the face of mounting challenges for the festival, the industry, and the arts more broadly.
Last year the festival’s title sponsor, Bell, announced an end to its nearly three decade long partnership with the organization, echoing similar funding challenges across the country’s art institutions. At the same time the film industry is undergoing a seismic change as viewing habits evolve away from theatres in the streaming era.
The Toronto Star recently spoke with Bailey from the TIFF Lightbox about his passion for film, how the festival has evolved, ongoing financial challenges in the arts, and his most memorable celebrity encounters over decades at one of the country’s biggest film institutions.
How did you first get involved with TIFF?
While I was studying at Western I also worked for the campus newspaper, first going to concerts and reviewing them, and then I started writing about movies. That gave me a portfolio — a student portfolio, but a portfolio nonetheless — which I took into NOW Magazine when I applied for a job as a film critic. I remember my test review was for Die Hard, and I liked it, and I guess they liked what I wrote about it, because they hired me.
I was doing a little bit of quasi-academic writing on films for different publications and joined some volunteer groups who were working on bringing different filmmakers into Toronto — very grassroots level. And through whatever means I guess it was noticed by our former CEO, Piers Handling, who was heading the programming team, and he invited me to come on board to be part of TIFF’s Canadian film committee in 1990.
When I was a film critic it was just me and the movie and a kind of anonymous mass of readers. I loved film, and I was interested in expressing those opinions, but there was no connection with the readership.  
The difference in becoming a programmer, and then all the different jobs I’ve had at TIFF, is that you can talk to, and listen to, and feel the audience, and that changes how you see film; at least it did for me. Nothing beats actually choosing a film, introducing it in front of a live audience, watching it with them, and seeing their reaction.
From my understanding, and from data that’s out there, people are watching more things on screens than ever before, but there’s something still unique about the collective experience, especially coming out of the pandemic. We’re social animals, we want to connect with each other, and art is often the way that we do it most readily. We’re here to try to provide that to people, to bring that excitement — not just at the festival, but year-round.
The exciting thing is that the major global streaming platforms are available in almost 200 countries. So, whether it’s a Canadian series like Schitt’s Creek, or a film from Lebanon, or Martin Scorsese’s new epic, there’s so much more that’s available now to everyone. I’m old enough to remember a time when if you wanted to see an art house film you had to work really hard to track it down, but there is a wider range of material that’s available now.
That’s good for our curiosity, so long as we make the most of it. Sometimes all that choice can be paralyzing, and people end up watching the stuff that’s just familiar and comfortable. I’m guilty of that as well. I’ve probably watched 30 hours of Brooklyn Nine Nine, but it’s that balance that I think we’re all trying to find.
We had Bell as our lead sponsor for many, many years, and it was a great partnership, and we’re grateful for that. When it ended, we did have lots of notice, so that helped. But we were also in a very challenging landscape.
Many arts organizations are really challenged by the combination of costs going up and funding staying flat. We’re talking to new partners, really letting everyone know about the value of being a part of TIFF. As one of Canada’s leading cultural brands and one of the leading film brands in the world, this is something that you want to protect and invest in and support. We’re coming up on our 50th anniversary next year, people understand what we’ve built over five decades, but we want to springboard into the next five decades in a strong way.
The most recent numbers put the economic impact on the Greater Toronto Area at about $240 million annually. That’s from before the pandemic, and we expect it to be more by this point, especially with how much more we’re doing year-round.
Walking out on stage, calling on Steven Spielberg to introduce the world premiere of “The Fabelmans,” that was a once-in-a-lifetime moment. He is somebody whose movies I grew up on, and I’ve learned a lot about the craft of filmmaking by watching his films. My family watches “Catch Me If You Can every Christmas,” so that was a big one.
Artistically, meeting someone like Jean-Luc Godard, who really started my passion for art house cinema as a student, he was at the festival in the late ‘90s, and I was able to meet him, and fumble through a few words of bad French with him. That was exciting.
In terms of movie stars, there’s so many, but there are some that return over multiple years that I’ve developed a more intimate relationship with, and they become great advocates for the festival. Viggo Mortensen, who I have such respect for — despite being a Montreal Canadiens fan — he’s just a thoughtful, fun, smart person, and he was able to get an exemption last year to present during the SAG-AFTRA strike. Ethan Hawke, Salma Hayek, all three of them were here at the festival last year, and I think that’s partly thanks to the past experiences they’ve had here.
Great big things. This city has become one of the top cities in the world for movies. Not only has the Toronto audience become a powerful one in the industry, but it’s also become one of the top cities in the world for the making of movies. We’re excited to have been a part of helping the city grow into the movie capital that it is today.
We are working on a number of things both for this year and for next year that we’re very excited about. That’s all I can say for now.