The Toronto International Film Festival is 11 days of films, stars, and celebrities throughout downtown, including, of course, legendary parties to celebrate the talent. At least two events, though, looked to draw a little more attention to the unsung and lesser known heroes of the television and movie worlds.
During the festival’s second week, Behind the Camera House hosted an event at Mascot Brewery, on King Street West right in the heart of TIFF 2025. Co-hosts included — and embodied the kinds of professions being celebrated — publicist Andrew Seth Cohen of Impact24 PR, Chris Bridges, the Special Makeup Effects Department Head, Prosthetic Designer, and Makeup Artist on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, composers Dillon Baldassero (Davey & Jonesie’s Locker), Erica Procunier (Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go), Thilo Schaller (Il Doge: A Portrait of Redemption), and Tom Third (Modern Whore), and assorted actors, producers and writers.
Networking is crucial in the film and TV businesses (it really is about who you know), and events like the meet up boost your professional profile as well as your professional ego.
During the first TIFF weekend, Coming Home: A TIFF Portrait Studio & Activation Celebrating the Unsung Heroes of Film was an event to do just that. It celebrated Canadian creativity with not only portraits and cocktails, but Canadian and local companies and products.
The space, a pop-up location at 45 Ossington, was transformed into a “typical” (read: upscale) Toronto apartment for the theme of “coming home”, with contributions from Whence Furniture, Sassa Fras (fragrance), and Mitsu (floral design), plus over 35 pieces of art, curated by Andrea Gelinas. Gelinas is a Toronto-based dentist and designer whose dental studio is renowned as a welcoming, art-filled environment. Every detail used the event was Canadian, and if possible locally, sourced.
Photographer and art director Neil-Anthony Watson was a co-host, and he captured portraits of some of the attendees. He generally works with film rather than digital photography.
“There’s an arresting quality with film that you can never get with digital,” he says. Over his career, Watson says that he works with TV and film projects routinely, along with other major clients. “The thing that I specialize in is taste,” he explains.
He’s lived all over the world in pursuit of photography, including spending a decade as an art director. “I never really developed by own point of view,” he says. “What’s the throughline? It’s just my taste. I’m doing my best to put it into practice.”
He contrasts photography with drawing and visual art. “Photography is not as subjective as drawing,” he says. “You can’t lie.”
Last year at TIFF, he photographed the AAA+ list crowd for Variety and Chanel.
“I had maybe a minute to two minutes,” he recalls. That was the amount of time he had for each celebrity shoot.
This year, he wanted to do more for the people who aren’t on that AAA list, with a focus on Canadian emerging artists. He partnered with Coming Home Founder & CEO Tabitha Vallerie to create a relaxed and intimate portrait studio. It resulted in an entirely different experience both for him and his portrait subjects.
“Those were real conversations,” he say. “I got to meet people.”
He slowed the shoots down from a minute or so to 20 minutes for each person. He wanted them to feel at home, and relax, and feel appreciated. The results show in the intimate and relaxed portraits displayed at the event.
“TIFF shines a global spotlight on film, but Coming Home is about celebrating the community that makes cinema possible — the people whose names may not appear above the title, but whose artistry defines what we see on screen,” said Tabitha Vallierie , Founder & CEO of Coming Home in a statement.
Here’s to the many, many people behind the scenes, the lesser known and the unsung, for all they do to keep us entertained and enlightened.
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