Pinewood Toronto Studios is set to name one of its soundstages after Paul Bronfman, the Canadian industry pioneer who diedin February at age 67.

Bronfman was a longtime chairman of Pinewood Toronto Studios, and before that a founding partner and a major shareholder in Filmport Studios, a production studio complex that opened in Torontos portlands in 2008. A year later, the facility was rebranded as Pinewood Toronto Studios, with Bronfman in the role of chairman and a key shareholder.

In 2023, Bronfman sold his minority stake to the Pinewood Group, the London-based studio group that runs Pinewood Studios in the U.K. and now owns all of the Toronto mega-studio. Pinewood Toronto Studios would not exist today, had it not been for Paul Bronfmans personal and professional support throughout the years first as an investor and our founding chairman, and following the sale of the business to Pinewood Group in 2023, as a dear friend and advisor to the leadership team.He was a great man who earned remarkable influence throughout the Canadian film industry and we are delighted to commemorate his legacy with a stage named in his honor, Sarah Farrell, general manager of Pinewood Toronto Studios, told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement.

The Paul Bronfman Stage, Pinewood Toronto Studios. Pinewood Group The Paul Bronfman Stage, formerly Stage 7, over the years has hosted production for Star Trek franchise shows like Star Trek: Section 31; five seasons of Star Trek: Discovery; the 2015 Adam Sandler sci fi comedy Pixels; Paul Verhoevens 1987 sci fi drama Robocop; David Cronenbergs 2012 fantasy thriller Cosmopolis; and the 2011 thriller Dream House, which starred Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz.

The stage renaming is especially poignant for the Bronfman family, who will be part of an unveiling ceremony at the Toronto waterfront studio on Wednesday.

We are gratefulto Pinewood Toronto Studios and the Pinewood Group for their tribute to our father Paul Bronfman by naming stage7 in his honor. Our dad was incredibly passionate about providing first class production service infrastructure to the Canadian and international film and TV communities. Being a founding partner in Pinewood Toronto Studios embodiedthat mission. Its tremendously meaningful to us that Pinewood will continue his legacy in thisway, Jonathan Bronfman, co-president and CEO of Toronto VFX studio Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies(MARZ), said in his own statement.

In recent years, Pinewood Toronto Studios has played host to production for a steady flow of Hollywood tentpole movies and TV series, withNetflixand Amazon MGM Studios each having a long-term lease on soundstages as part of Toronto production hubs.

But Bronfman is remembered for keeping the faith with the original Filmport studio from its original financing and construction through to a difficult launch of the then seven-stage studio during the 2008 Wall Street financial crisis, which put the squeeze on Hollywood production budgets.

Pinewood Toronto Studios Courtesy of Pinewood Studios For its grand opening in 2008, he (Bronfman) raised its profile by honoring his good friend David Cronenberg with the privilege of cutting the ribbon. He then used his considerable influence in Los Angeles to drum up business, though few may remember that the Canadian dollar exceeded the value of the US dollar at the time, so bookings were scarce in the early years, Ken Ferguson, former president of Toronto Film Studios and Filmport, recounts.

Bronfman remained a key shareholder in the post-Filmport rebranding of Pinewood Toronto Studios in 2009 when Britains Pinewood Studios Group came on board to promote the Toronto soundstages as a manager.

Alfredo Romano, a Toronto real estate developer at Castlepoint Development, recalled while the studios original builder, real estate developer Rose Corp., wanted to exit Filmport, Bronfman was keen to stay on as part of the new ownership consortium for Pinewood Toronto Studios.

Having developed film infrastructure across Canada, he knew Toronto could not sustain a place at the Hollywood table without well run purpose builtstudios ours wouldbe the first. He had no intention of selling and we quickly agreed to a partnership, Romano tells THR.

He adds: As Pinewood Torontos first and long serving chairman, Paul was a key protagonist in several expansions that saw Pinewood Toronto grow to a 17 stage facility and become a best in class facility. In the darkest moments when the studio was still bleeding, we often joked about how little value those preferred shares had. It didnt matter one bit to him. He was doing what he loved to do and I was thrilledto be along for the ride.

Oscar winner Don Carmody (Chicago), who first worked with Bronfman in Montreal while both were with Astral Bellevue Pathe at the height of Canadas tax shelter years, recalled over a 45-year friendship watching aleading supplier of production rental equipment, soundstages and services to major studios, streamers and locals shooting in Canada come into his own as an industry mogul.

He (Bronfman) courted studio executives, network movers and shakers and anyone who he could cajole into trying Canada for their projects. He was a champion of the tax credit programs available throughout the provinces and agitated to keep them fresh, competitive and ahead of the other countries, states and jurisdictions, who all soon jumped on our bandwagon, Carmody recalls.

Randy Lennox, a former CEO of Bell Media, the Canadian media giant that also sold its controlling stake in Pinewood Toronto Studios to the Pinewood Group to allow overall control, and worked with Bronfman from 2017 until his passing earlier this year, tells THR the longtime studio chairman and investor remained full of pride over an original 34 acre film production campusgrowing exponentially over the decades on the strength of major American studios and streamers shooting their originals on its soundstages.

Paul never veered away from his affable, yet direct approach in making sure that everyone from the studio executives to the on-site carpenters were treated with fairness and deferential respect. You could see every day, this was his baby! Lennox, senior advisor to the Pinewood Group worldwide and Loft Entertainment CEO, recalls in tribute to Bronfman.

Other productions to fill soundstages at Pinewood Toronto Studios over the years includeIt: Chapter Two, The Christmas Chronicles, A Simple Favor, Mollys Game andThe Expanse. The facility now stands at around 490,000 square feet of production space and 17 soundstages in all.

In early 2025, partly at the urging of Bronfman, Pinewood Toronto Studios named another of its soundstages after Norman Jewison, the In the Heat of the Night and Moonstruck director who died a year earlier at age 97.