During Steve Gilula and Nancy Utley’s over-20-year tenure as senior executives of Searchlight Pictures, the film studio built a reputation as the gold standard for spotlighting singular stories, and for fostering the creative vision of uniquely talented filmmakers. They championed the directors behind a number of TIFF audience favourites, including Slumdog Millionaire (2008), Black Swan (2010), 12 Years a Slave (2013), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), and, most recently, Academy Award Best Picture winner Nomadland (2020).

To commemorate their remarkable legacy, TIFF Artistic Director & Co-Head Cameron Bailey leads a conversation with Gilula and Utley about their successes, challenges, and lessons learned along the way.