Calgary’s Film Commissioner and Vice President, Creative Industries at Calgary Economic Development Luke Azevedo, is set to become the new CEO of Edmonton Screen.

Azevedo has served in numerous roles at CED for nearly 18-years, and as Calgary’s Film Commissioner since 2007, leading Calgary’s efforts to attract some of the biggest name projects on both small and silver screens to the city.

That’s included projects like HBO’s Last of Us, which generated $182 million for the Alberta economy and provided more than 1,500 creative industry jobs.

“It’s been an honour to work with Calgary Economic Development over the past 17 years,” said Azevedo.

“This transition will only strengthen the ties between our two cities. Together, we can grow Alberta’s creative industry into a pillar of economic and cultural development.”

Brad Parry, CEO of Calgary Economic Development, said that the organization would miss Azevedo’s leadership but they were excited for what this meant for the creative economy across Alberta.

“Luke has done such an amazing job in setting us up for success over all this period of time. It’s been 18 years he’s been [Calgary Economic Development], and he and I’ve been talking about this, and he just wanted to have a new challenge, and he knew the next phase of what we’re doing. But this opportunity is huge for him. I can’t stress enough how happy I am for him,” Parry said.

Parry said the change meant that there would be greater opportunities for pan-Albertan cooperation in the film industry—which meant more economic prosperity for both cities.

“It’s certainly not going to be Calgary versus Edmonton. It’s going to be Calgary and Edmonton, and I think he’s going to do an amazing job up there and really bring the profile of that community up,” he said.

Pan-Albertan opportunity for film and television

He said that the opportunity to become the new Edmonton Screen CEO was just too good to pass up, and that his voice would be an important one for Edmonton.

“As we talk about where we’re taking our creative economy, it’s a great time for us to make sure we have that kind of a voice in those markets, and looks at an amazing job of opening up other markets for Alberta, not just Calgary,” Parry said.

“If you think about his trips to Korea and some of the productions he’s been able to bring back—or to Germany or to London—I just know it’s going to be a great relationship, just like we have right now with Edmonton Global. We go out there and hunt as a pack. So I think it’s going to be a good thing for the industry.”

Parry also stressed that Azevedo had been building a strong team already at CED, who would be continuing the work to build on Calgary’s film and television economy.

“We’re going to open up the search process starting this week, and we’ll start interviewing candidates. Luke isn’t leaving for another month, so we have a lot of time to make sure we’ve got some transition time, and we’ll have a conversation about what kind of candidate do we want,” he said.

“I’m going to look to Luke. I don’t think we can replace Luke. Luke is Luke, let’s be honest. But we definitely want somebody who’s got a great cultural fit, who understands the industry, and who’s really committed to the community.”

Parry said that the candidate could come from within Calgary or from another market, but that the main goal was to find someone who would be a champion for Calgary’s film industry.

Calgary International Film Festival Executive Director Katherine Penhale thanked Azevedo for being that champion for Calgary’s film industry, and for supporting film festivals like CIFF.

“He used to sit on the board, and he’s been engaged in about every way he can be throughout the years. We’ve been thrilled to have him. We wish him the best, and we can’t wait to see who comes in next,” Penhale said.

Penhale also hoped Calgary’s next film commissioner is as interested in reaching out beyond the borders of Calgary to really showcase what the city’s film industry has to offer nationally and internationally.

“I think having somebody who’s really engaged locally and really seeing the value of every single stage, the production process, all the way from studios to IP development, all the way through to development of local talent, and all the way into the representation in the showing, showing films in Calgary and also in developing that audience, it’s going to be important to keep things growing.”

Azevedo will be departing as Calgary’s Film Commissioner on April 21.