The City of Brantford recently announced that it was nominated for a Location Managers Guild International (LMGI) Award for its work with The Handmaid’s Tale TV in 2020.

Brantford was nominated in the Outstanding Film Commission category for it’s exemplary and creative work performed above and beyond the usual service provided to location professionals for its work with the TV series. 

Kevin Dekok, Brantford Economic Development Officer and the film liaison for the City of Brantford, spoke to CJKS about the award nomination and highlighted the effort that it took from the city’s departments, local businesses and residents. 

“The nomination is an ensemble in a way because there's so many different parties that were involved from the downtown BIA, to the individual businesses, the residents that live there, as simple as anyone who was commuting along Dalhousie, or Colborne (street) that were affected by the road closures or partial road closures.” 

“The entire effort took months of planning and somewhere between 12 and 15 city departments were involved one way or another during the initial consultation,” he added.

Brantford was nominated for the award out of over 300 different applicants that submitted for the LMGI awards. 

“It is both humbling and a great honour, the number of applicants that were received were from around the world. So to be able to be recognized not just on a local level but on the international stage, us and Kingston were both nominated and that is fantastic for Ontario," Dekok said. "Ontario is a growing centre of film in the world. A lot of production studios are looking to what Ontario has to offer with its workforce, the cost advantage, the talent that it offers, and its infrastructure.”

This project is one of the many film and production projects that the city has been involved in in recent years. Brantford has made an effort to become more film-friendly and is benefitting from these projects coming to film within the city limits. 

“The most obvious (benefit) is the direct investment. So city revenues and city costs are often significantly a part of their budget. If they are applying for permits or renting space from the city, those revenues certainly help the city as an entity directly" Dekok said. "There's also investment into the community if they are here on a longer term (like The Handmaid’s Tale), we see that translated into hotel room nights, spending at local businesses, even last minute supplies that are being picked up all of that does have an impact. And Lastly, long term a large show like The Handmaid’s Tale does have quite a following and so that kind of film tourism if we could call it that where people would to go and see where they’re favourite shows have been produced that they would come and visit and then that brings additional tourists dollars into the community as well.”

The LMGI awards will announce the winners on August 27 in Los Angeles, California.

Listen to the CJKS story below: