TORONTO – The Toronto International Film Festival Group is naming the city block near its new headquarters in honour of filmmaker Ivan Reitman and his family.
Reitman Square will be a permanent part of the address of the Bell Lightbox building, scheduled to be completed sometime in 2009 in the city’s entertainment district.
Ivan Reitman and his sisters, Agi Mandel and Susan Michaels are co-developing the five-storey building under the King and John Festival Corporation.
The other co-developer, The Daniels Corporation, is also getting recognized with a lobby named after John and Myrna Daniels.
Together, the Reitmans and The Daniels Corporation have contributed $22 million toward development of the building, which will house five cinemas, two galleries, three learning studios, a reference library and archive and a retail store.
Ivan Reitman and his sisters say Reitman Square will honour their parents and “give back to the city and to the country” that took them in as immigrants.
“It’s a tremendous tribute to the hard work of our parents and we can think of no better way of doing that and to thank Toronto, and the community for helping our family build a new life,” they said in a release.
A plaque outlining the Reitman family story as immigrants and business owners in the area, King and John, will also hang in the lobby.
And a short film chronicling the history of the site and the part Leslie and Clara Reitman played in its development will play on screens throughout Bell Lightbox, said festival officials.
Ivan Reitman will direct the piece, which will also be on the festival’s website.
Reitman’s son is filmmaker Jason Reitman, whose latest release, “Juno,” is up for a slew of awards.
