TORONTO – The Brian Linehan Charitable Foundation has donated $1 million to the Toronto International Film Festival Group’s Festival Centre, which will be built at the corner of King and John streets in Toronto.
Construction began on February 1 on the facility, which will include a five-story podium building housing the TIFFG’s operations, a gallery, five cinemas, educational suites, a film reference library and Festival Tower, a 37-story residential condominium building.
The TIFFG will name the research room at Festival Centre after Linehan, an entertainment journalist/host who died in 2004. It will also establish The Brian Linehan Endowment Fund, with an anonymous endowment gift of $200,000.
The Brian Linehan Research Room will be located in the Festival Centre’s film reference library and will hold Canadian original photographs, biographies, scripts, props, interviews and productions.
The endowment fund will initially be used to finance an In Conversation program, which will see a high-profile film director or actor being interviewed by Handling or another TIFFG senior representative. The TIFFG intends to raise enough money to increase the endowment to $1 million.
“Brian Linehan’s impact on the film and television industry is legendary,” said TIFFG Director and CEO Piers Handling. “He carved out a unique reputation as someone who cared passionately about the movies and the people involved in creating their magic.”
Michael A. Levine, executor of the estate of Brian Linehan and trustee of The Brian Linehan Charitable Foundation added, “He [Linehan] has left his entire estate to the Foundation for the creation of a Canadian star system through the financial support of advanced training, subsidy of excellent work, such as that of the Toronto International Film Festival Group, and an aggressive promotion of our talent.”
The Festival Centre is a co-development project between the TIFFG and the King and John Festival Corp., which is comprised of The Daniels Corp., filmmaker Ivan Reitman and the Reitman Family.
An official groundbreaking ceremony for the centre is scheduled for April 23.
