The Blue Mountain Film Festival (BMFF) has bolstered its leadership team ahead of its inaugural event in June, hiring Diana Sanchez as co-director of programming.

Sanchez most recently served as senior director, film at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) before departing the organization in January. She first joined TIFF as an international programmer before taking the senior director role in 2019.

She will work with Helen du Toit, executive and artistic director, to lead the festival’s programming.

Sanchez is currently a sessional lecturer at the University of Toronto’s Cinema Studies Institute. She was previously the founding artistic director of the Panama Film Festival.

The recently launched BMFF will select 25 films, both Canadian and international, to screen at Ontario’s Blue Mountain Village between June 1 to 5. The festival has a Creative Forum with six sessions, including a discussion on “themes of dystopia and the environment.” It will also include “intimate sidebar events in the surrounding mountains with senior filmmakers and key decision makers.”

BMFF recently announced its content advisory committee, which includes Netflix exec Tara Woodbury, producers Daniel Bekerman and Allison Black, Hungry Eyes Media’s Sudz Sutherland and Coroner actor Tamara Podemski.