Toronto’s Breakthroughs Film Festival has named Mariam Zaidi its new exec director.

Zaidi replaces Gabor Pertic, who has held the position for the past three years. Pertic will serve in the role until the completion of the seventh annual fest, which runs June 15 to 16.

The Breakthroughs Film Festival programs short films by emerging female directors. This year’s festival includes 19 films from nine countries.

Zaidi, who also serves as an associate programmer at the Hot Docs International Documentary Festival, has numerous documentary credits to her name. She’s worked in various positions on such films as Rama Rau’s The World Before Her, Min Sook Lee’s Migrant Dreams and Noemi Weis’ Milk.

Her directorial debut Safar previously received a grant from the Breakthroughs Film Festival and went on to pick up best short documentary at UAE’s We Care Film Festival.

Most recently, her short film Over Time nabbed the Reel Asian Film Festival’s 2017 WIFT – T & DGC award.

Zaidi is a fellow of Shaw Media Hot Docs Diverse Voices and the Hot Docs Doc Accelerator programs.