Toronto Film School Celebrates Nearly 600 Class of 2025 Grads

Industry leaders and students share messages of persistence, collaboration, and the healing power of storytelling at 2025 convocation

Pride, excitement, and an outpouring of creative spirit filled Meridian Hall recently as Toronto Film School celebrated its Class of 2025 during a pair of convocation ceremonies.

Over the course of two ceremonies on November 13, nearly 600 newly minted graduates from across TFS’s on-campus and online programs, including Film Production, Acting for Film, TV & the Theatre, Writing for Film & Television, Graphic Design & Interactive Media, Video Game Design & Animation, Video Game Design & Development, Video Production, and Designing for Fashion, were celebrated for their hard work, determination, and artistic growth – more than 300 of whom were on hand at the downtown Toronto venue to collect their diplomas on stage.

Andrew Barnsley’s Opening Remarks

TFS President Andrew Barnsley opened both ceremonies – each uniquely shaped by its own speakers, stories, and moments – by recognizing just how meaningful the moment was for the graduates and the families, friends, and supporters cheering them on, both in-person at Meridian Hall and virtually from around the world via the livestream.

“Today is a day of celebration. The programs you graduates have just completed are formidable: they challenge both your creativity and your competency and are designed to help you realize the potential of your dreams. Today you are one step further along that path,” said Barnsley, an Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning executive producer on hits including Schitt’s Creek, Son of a Critch, and Jann.

“You have embarked on a journey of growth and learning and you have emerged as graduates equipped with the knowledge, skills and experiences that will propel you forward in your careers and in your personal lives. Be proud of what you’ve accomplished here today.”

Distinguished Speaker Fab Filippo

The morning ceremony’s Distinguished Speaker, award-winning writer-director-showrunner Fab Filippo, delivered a thoughtful address that invited graduates to reimagine their role as creators in a speech cleverly presented as a “pitch.”

“I have this idea for a convocation speech. It’s short. Precise. The tone is slightly comedic with some dramatic elements,” quipped Filippo, whose achievements include co-creating and co-running the CBC and HBO Max’s Peabody Award-winning series Sort Of, which made top TV lists from Vanity Fair to Rolling Stone.

“Tonally, I’ll give you what we in the biz call a comp. I imagine this speech having the ‘do-what-you-love message’ of Steve Jobs’s commencement address at Stanford, with Sandra Oh’s ‘transforming discomfort into joy’ at Dartmouth. So, low bar. It’s part philosophical, part practical. The theme? Reality.”

Reality, Filippo told graduates, is not something that simply happens to us or around us, but something that happens through us. Like characters interacting with the plot of a story, individuals shape their world through the narratives they embrace, create, and share, he said.

“Reality is something you’re interacting with – the way characters interact not only with each other but with the story itself. The choices characters make in a story change the story,” he explained.

“Any of you who are writers here know that once you get in there, the line between character and story doesn’t exist. In keeping with that analogy, the story is reality, and the characters are us, we are reality and reality is us.”

Therefore, Filippo posited, it is up to TFS graduates, as the next generation of creatives, to utilize their future careers to help build the fabric of reality itself.

“You may not be 100 percent responsible for reality, but you are responsible for the story in your own head. Craft it well. Make sure you’re the one with the final cut,” he said, before concluding his speech with a reminder of the joy at the root of all creative work.

“Understand that the job you’re about to do – making stories, building worlds, filtering realities – is all just an extension of what everybody should get to do in their lives: Play. Just play. Play as much as you can. Because that’s how we make meaning.”

Distinguished Speaker Kyle Muir

The afternoon ceremony’s Distinguished Speaker, screenwriter and narrative designer Kyle Muir, delivered a deeply relatable (and comedic) speech to graduates about carving a creative career out of uncertainty, persistence, and relentless self-belief.

Muir – whose credits span across both television (Billable Hours, Detentionaire, and Call Me Fitz) and AAA video games (Far Cry 5, Far Cry 6, and Starlink: Battle for Atlas) – began his address by confessing that he himself was never a model student, comparing his academic record to “patch notes” filled with brutally honest feedback.

“If school was a video game, I wasn’t the speed runner – I was the one mashing buttons, hoping for a checkpoint,” he said, noting that his early professional life wasn’t much better. “It was about as straightforward as Skyrim’s main questline – lots of side missions, distractions, and unexpected turns.”

From writing terrible poetry while working as a casino security guard, to dropping out of multiple programs, to finally getting into (and graduating from) the Canadian Film Centre – Muir said his greatest lessons didn’t come from early success, but rather from grinding through the unexpected and never quitting.

“Perseverance is everything in this industry. I kept writing, kept failing, kept going. The only way out was through. And eventually, I did break through – not in film, but as a TV writer. That led to years of learning, rewriting, working my way up,” he recalled.

“And then came the twist I never saw coming: Video games. Suddenly, everything I’d learned – poetry, film, TV, hell, even the failures – fed into this new career.”

Added some extra context for those unfortunate souls who have never played this joyous game.

Muir encouraged graduates to embrace the messy, unpredictable, and sometimes chaotic path ahead, reminding them that persistence, flexibility, and learning from every misstep are the true keys to longevity.

His closing message brought the room together in laughter and inspiration:

“So, graduates, now here you are. You’ve cleared the tutorial. You’ve beaten the first boss. Now you’re loading into the open world – an industry that is unpredictable, wild, turbulent, often buggy, but full of possibility,” he said.

“Some days will feel like escort missions – long, slow, frustrating. Some will feel like grindy fetch quests…But then there will be moments of pure magic: the first time something you made truly clicks. The first time your team comes together and it works. The first time someone halfway across the world plays your game and feels something.

“That’s why we play. That’s why we create.”

Student Graduation Speaker Levi Goethe-Bahlmann

Film Production graduate Levi Goethe-Bahlmann delivered the morning ceremony’s Student Graduation Speech – a heartfelt reflection on fear, courage, community, and the power of storytelling.

Now an up-and-coming transgender filmmaker, Goethe-Bahlmann spoke candidly about the anxieties he, like many creatives, first felt when enrolling in film school – the uncertainty, the risk, the excitement and the fear. He recalled arriving in a new city, away from home, surrounded by strangers, yet instantly sensing he was exactly where he needed to be.

“I still remember saying to a friend of mine at the time, ‘I feel like I have my spark back,’ bur all the while my fear held hands with that excitement,” he recalled.

What followed, he said, was a transformative 18-month journey filled with “sleepless nights working on assignments, editing sessions that spanned hours while sharing snacks, and rushed coffee runs during breaks in our 8 a.m. classes,” alongside the “wonderful” classmates he quickly forged bonds with at TFS – “people, with so much passion, grit, tenacity, and I discovered later on, a natural gift for storytelling.”

Through it all, Goethe-Bahlmann said it was TFS instructors who were responsible for shaping he and his fellow graduates’ shared experience with passion, expertise, and generosity.

“They encouraged us to ask questions, nurtured our creativity, and pushed us to do our best,” he said.

“From surprisingly captivating lectures on copyright law and film history, to deep dives into the art of visual storytelling and directing actors, to lessons on shot lists, shoot schedules, and five-year plans – their contributions to our education were profound and greatly appreciated.”

Above all, Gothe-Bahlmann’s address celebrated the power of storytelling.

“The stories we tell can help people learn about the world and open their eyes to different perspectives,” he said, crediting The Iron Giant – the first movie that, at age four, made him cry – for changing the way he saw himself.

“That moment is why I do what I do,” he said. “I know every single person in this room has had a moment like that – a moment where they’ve connected with a piece of media in such a profound way that they decided they, too, want to create something that will make others feel the same way.

“I want each one of you to think about the moment that was the turning point for you,” he urged his fellow grads. “It’s why you’re here now and it’s why I can’t wait to see what you all create after we leave this room today.

Student Graduation Speaker Sophia Cano

In the afternoon ceremony, Acting for Film, TV & the Theatre graduate Sophia Cano delivered an emotional and deeply personal address that resonated across programs.

While the aspiring actor began her speech with humour – “To the future casting directors: Hi, I’m 5’1” and I’m based in Toronto” – Cano quickly shifted into a moving reflection on vulnerability, identity, and the healing nature of art.

She spoke openly about periods of loneliness, heaviness, and self-doubt she experienced along her journey, describing how her craft became a place to pour everything she couldn’t express aloud. Through that process, she not only found solace, but connection when she was brave enough to share her work with the world.

“People began to tell me they felt the same way – that they thought they were the only ones struggling,” Cano said. “Hearing that changed me. I realized something bigger than myself –the art we create – has the power to reach people; to make them feel seen, understood, less alone, more human. That’s when I truly understood the responsibility and the beauty of what we do.”

Cano continued by sharing her musings on how art doesn’t only come from joy, but that sometimes it’s shaped by pain – and that the transformation of that pain can also help others feel seen, understood, and less alone.

“We get to take that adversity and turn it into something that not only heals us, but helps heal others who are silently facing similar struggles,” she said.

“We get to create documentaries that preserve the scars of the past, so we don’t repeat them. We shine light in a world that can sometimes feel incredibly dark. We make people laugh when they’ve forgotten how. We create love and meaning when it feels like there’s none left. That is our gift to society.”

She also challenged the myth of competition in the creative industries:

“The moment we start competing or comparing, we lose sight of why we do this,” she said. “Art isn’t about outshining anyone; it’s about illuminating something together. It’s about taking our joy, pain, mistakes, and memories, and turning them into something meaningful to share with others.”

Encouraging her classmates to choose collaboration over comparison, she underscored the importance of community, empathy, and lifting each other up as they enter the industry.

Cano’s final message to her fellow grads was a call to purpose:

“We’ve been given the extraordinary gift to create art that lasts…So, in all the chaos, create peace. In all the hate, create love. And in all the pain, create healing,” she said.

“That is the greatest gift we’ve been given – and the best gift we can give the world.”

Closing Remarks and Cap Toss

Dr. Julia Christensen Hughes, President and Vice Chancellor of TFS affiliate Yorkville University, closed the celebrations with words of encouragement, emphasizing the urgency and importance of the graduates’ future creative work.

“I think perhaps at no other time in my life has reality needed more redefining and the powerful stories you can tell that will help us all move forward toward a better world,” she said. “We have every confidence in your ability now to go into the world, to go into your careers helping to tell those stories that need to be told.”

Before the highly anticipated cap toss, Christensen Hughes recognized the families watching in the hall and around the world, noting TFS’s international community and global livestream audience.

With a joyful countdown – “One, two, three!” – hundreds of caps soared into the air, marking the official beginning of the graduates’ next chapter.