Former TIFF Industry head Justin Cutler has been named the new Ontario Film Commissioner at the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

Cutler is taking over the post from Donna Zuchlinski, who held the post for an incredible 26-year term and is now retiring. He officially began Monday, Nov. 16.

Cutler comes to the OMDC from the Industry Office of the Toronto International Film Festival, where he was director for a little over a year before departing earlier this year. Cutler worked his way up into the director post at TIFF over the course of a decade, starting in the industry office as a coordinator in 2007 and a press liaison before that in 2005.

Zuchlinkski, on the other hand, has seen Ontario morph from production outpost to its powerhouse position today, which saw the province hit $1.3 billion in production volume – driven by domestic production – in 2014. She officially retired in October.

She spoke with Playback about her retirement this fall, saying she was proud of how much the province had developed since 1989.

“I think our infrastructure has really grown. Now, it truly is world-class – the stage space that we have here, the world-class post-production, visual effect companies and the crew base itself. We can provide anything that can be found in a Los Angeles and a New York.”