From the beginning, Robert understood the Toronto International Film Festival and what it could give him. Remember the riot around In Praise of Older Women in 1978? A brilliant entrepreneur with a natural talent for finding the showbiz angle, he watched this drama unfold as hundreds of guests found themselves locked out – of a Canadian film no less – and get angry about it. How many Canadians were fighting to get into Canadian films in those days?

As Alliance Communications stretched its young limbs, Robert used the festival brilliantly, to position himself, his films and his company.

From the beginning, he realized that the national and international focus on the Toronto festival afforded him a perfect platform to showcase his company. He and Victor Loewy astutely maneuvered their way into a position of being one of the major players and created huge awareness of their company and their productions.

From 1987 on, Alliance films were a regular feature at the festival, and the company began to create a significant impact when it offered us the world premiere of Black Robe as our opening night film in 1991.

It was a tough call. Robert was perceived as a Montreal producer and here he was giving Toronto the world premiere of his new film. But he stuck to his guns even though he faced considerable flack in the media. It was the beginning of a long association that saw Alliance provide us with four more opening-night films over the next seven years.

What always impressed me was his ability to focus on the big picture and think strategically. But, even more significantly, he was a passionate and tireless advocate for Canadian cinema.

As we had championed the David Cronenbergs and Atom Egoyans at the festival before anyone else, he soon realized that we shared common interests. Now he has created a profile for these and other filmmakers that sees their work play on the world stage as the equals of the best the world has to offer.

We wish him well.

Piers Handling is the director of the Toronto International Film Festival.