The Toronto International Film Festival has two new programmers on its team, adding journalist and critic Matthew Hays and festival circuit veteran Kathleen Mullen to its ranks for this year’s festival.

Hays — an instructor at Concordia University, longtime film critic for the Montreal Mirror and frequent Playback contributor — has joined the team that programs Canadian features, where he will work with TIFFers Jesse Wente and Steve Gravestock.

‘I’ve been covering TIFF for about 15 years now. I’ve always admired how brilliantly the festival was run and how thoughtfully it was curated,’ says Hays. ‘It has managed to screen the best international diet of films, while also providing a crucial launch for Canadian talent. I’m thrilled and honored to be a part of it.’

Hays’ work has also appeared in The New York Times and The Globe and Mail, and he is the author of The View From Here: Conversations with Gay and Lesbian Filmmakers.

Mullen has spent 12 years as a film curator, and joins the festival’s Short Cuts Canada program. She has programmed for festivals and film centers including the Provincetown International Film Festival, the Vancouver International Film Festival, and from 2000 to 2005 was director of programming at Toronto’s Inside Out festival.