Pinewood Toronto Studios Names New General Manager

Pinewood Toronto Studios has promoted general counsel Sarah Farrell to become the new general manager of the city’s downtown mega-studio.

Farrell, who joined film studio as legal counsel in 2013, had been overseeing legal, HR and client relations. She replaces Geoff Grant, who left Pinewood Toronto Studios as general manager in Sept. 2023. That followed Pinewood Group, which runs Pinewood Studios in the U.K., in May 2023 acquiring full ownership of Pinewood Toronto Studios.

“Sarah is a great asset to the Pinewood Group and we are delighted that she has taken the reins as general manager. She is an extremely experienced and knowledgeable professional who understands Pinewood Toronto and the wider film and TV industry well,” David Conway, Pinewood Group CEO, said in a statement.

Pinewood Toronto Studios has 16 soundstages and hosts shoots for major Hollywood players. That includes Amazon MGM Studios, which earlier this year did a deal to get exclusive use of five soundstages, along with workshops and office space over 160,000 square feet at the facility.

Hollywood studios and streamers in recent years have shifted more of their original film and TV series to Toronto for production to tap generous tax credits and currency savings from shooting in Canada.

Recent productions at Pinewood’s Toronto production hub include Star Trek: Discovery, Code 8: Part II, FUBAR and Star Trek: Section 31, which wrapped production last month. The Toronto film studio has long had Pinewood’s name on its marquee due to a sales and management deal with the facility’s former Canadian stakeholders that began in 2009 and ended last year.