The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has named Norm Wilner (pictured) as its acting lead programmer for Canada.

The festival announced Thursday (March 9) that Wilner now holds the title of acting lead programmer, Canada and Industry Selects.

The Canadian programming team now consists of Wilner and Kelly Boutsalis, associate international programmer, Canada. The two will work with chief programmer officer Anita Lee.

Wilner joined TIFF in 2022 as its digital releasing programmer, and is also the co-host of the annual program Secret Movie Club. Prior to joining TIFF, Wilner worked as a film critic and entertainment journalist for more than three decades, most recently at Toronto alt-weekly Now Magazine before it was acquired by Gonez Media.

Longtime Canadian programmer Steve Gravestock retired from his post at TIFF earlier this year after nearly two decades of work on the programming team. The festival also suffered an unexpected loss when senior programmer Ravi Srinivasan died suddenly on Jan. 14.

“I was thrilled with the incredible breadth of Canadian films programmed in my first year as chief of Programming, from luminaries to fresh discoveries and across Special Presentations, to Platform, TIFF Docs, Wavelengths and more. A Canadian film, Riceboy Sleeps, won the top prize in our Platform Competition. Black Ice, a Canadian doc won the People’s Choice Documentary Prize. It was a stand-out year for Canadian filmmakers at TIFF and I’d like to keep the spark going,” said Lee in a statement to Playback Daily. “Norm and Kelly together bring a very rich combination of professional and lived experiences to their programming. I’m excited to work with this dynamic team for festival 2023.”

Photo by George Pimentel