M agali Simard has resigned from her role as the City of Toronto’s film sector development program manager.

Simard has accepted a new Toronto-based role, according to a statement issued to Playback Daily, which will be announced in the coming weeks. Her last day with the City of Toronto is April 13.

“I am immensely proud of the work I’ve done with the team at the City of Toronto for the past 4.5 years. The Toronto screen industry is at a historical turning point in terms of growth, and I’ve been in the lucky position to partner with the industry’s entire ecosystem to attract business, expand studio infrastructure, train and diversify our workforce and instill pride in Torontonians for having this creative force of an industry in our town. It’s been a fun ride too, and I’m in awe of the Toronto industry’s ability to together keep our eye on the prize of being a forward-thinking creative centre of excellence,” wrote Simard. “All I can say is: I’ll keep building on this momentum.”

Already established as an industry veteran, Simard has been part of the City of Toronto since 2017 after working at the Toronto International Film Festival for more than a decade. She served as senior manager of theatrical programming and the Canada film curator at the time of her departure.

The City of Toronto has continually broken its production volume record in the last few years, having recently announced a new record of $2.5 billion in production spend in 2021, up from the previous record-breaking $2.2 billion in 2019.

During her time with the film office, Simard worked with unions, studios, agencies, distributors, networks and the government to expand the local screen industry’s work domestically and internationally.