Bell Lightbox, the new headquarters of the Toronto International Film Festival Group, was recently the scene of a ‘topping off’ ceremony – an ironworkers’ tradition in which the final beam is decorated with flags and an evergreen to mark an accident-free construction site, before being hoisted into place.

TIFFG CEO Piers Handling told Playback he will be taking a ‘leadership position on Lightbox’s $196-million fundraising campaign, with a focus on raising the remaining $31 million of the capital portion. That leaves $18 million to raise for the endowment.

And if the money doesn’t come through? ‘The building is completely financed,’ said Handling, ‘We’ll just go deeper into debt, and we’d have to finance that debt.’