Toronto-based filmmaker, writer and producer Tom Perlmutter has been named director general, English Program at the National Film Board.

A former writer/editor of defunct trade mag Cinema Canada, Perlmutter has worked as an indie producer (Arc Films and Orbit Films), as executive director of the Alliance for Children and Television, as head of documentary production at Toronto’s Barna-Alper (Turning Points of History, The Sexual Century) and as head of development at CineNova Productions, Toronto.

In 2000, he cofounded Toronto’s Primitive Entertainment, creating and producing The Team, Dangerous Obsessions and Summits. He also developed the four-hour Canada/France archaeological coproduction The Bible Unearthed and Teen Invasion, the CTV Documart silver prize winner at this year’s Banff Television Festival.

Perlmutter replaces Barbara Janes, who retired in August after a distinguished 29-year career at the board.

‘Tom will be a key player in the revitalization of the NFB, which is just beginning,’ says NFB chair Jacques Bensimon. Perlmutter’s appointment is effective Dec. 1.

-www.nfb.ca