National Film Board of Canada (NFB) senior leader and producer Julie Roy is taking the helm of Telefilm Canada.

Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez announced Monday (March 13) that Roy has been appointed as executive director of Telefilm Canada for a five-year term, effective April 3. A separate news release from Telefilm said she will also serve as CEO, as her predecessors did.

Roy takes over from Francesca Accinelli, who was serving as interim executive director and CEO of Telefilm after previous head and now-CPAC CEO Christa Dickenson stepped down last September as part of a planned departure from her four-year term announced last April. Accinelli will return to her previous role of VP, promotion, communication and international relations at Telefilm, a spokesperson tells Playback Daily.

Montreal-born Roy brings nearly 30 years of experience in the Canadian film industry to the role, most recently at the NFB, where she was first executive producer of the Crown corporation’s French Animation Studio and served as a producer for 13 years. In May 2020, she became the NFB’s director general of creation and innovation, and last September was promoted to director general and head of programming.

In her latest role at the NFB, Roy oversaw all of the Crown corporation’s production studios across the country, as well as the distribution, marketing and merchandising units, according to a news release. She also helped establish the NFB’s vision and programming goals, with a focus on broadening its audience, and served as producer for the animation section of the NFB’s Aide au cinéma indépendant program.

Roy has produced some 50 films and interactive projects, primarily animated shorts, throughout her career. Her credits include executive producer on Theodore Ushev’s Blind Vaysha (Vaysha l’aveugle) (NFB), which was nominated for Best Animated Short at the 89th Academy Awards in 2017; and coproducer of Franck Dion’s 2016 short The Head Vanishes (Une tête disparaît) (Papy3D/NFB), which won the Annecy film festival’s Annecy Cristal.

She has also designed numerous marketing campaigns and shown a particular interest in experimental projects.

Roy holds a master’s degree in film studies from the Université de Montréal and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The release from Canadian Heritage touted Roy’s dual expertise in production and marketing, and called her “an advocate for diversity and inclusion both on-screen and behind it, to ensure a plurality of voices leads to authentic storytelling.”

She was chosen by way of a recruitment process that started in June 2022 with the participation of Telefilm Canada’s board of directors, said the release from the funder. The selection committee also included representatives from the Office of the Prime Minister, the Privy Council Office, the Department of Canadian Heritage, and the Office of the Minister of Canadian Heritage.

The committee “conducted a rigorous process and analyzed the profiles of candidates from across the country and outside Canada. The committee’s objective was to identify a strong, bilingual manager with the leadership skills and innovative spirit required to lead through this period of change within Canada’s audiovisual industry,” added the release.

“The country’s digital landscape is in a state of change and the challenges ahead are significant and exciting. There are opportunities ahead of us. We must seize them in order to increase the influence of our talent and our industry,” Roy said in a statement.

“In this context, Telefilm Canada’s mission will be more relevant than ever. I will undertake my mandate by relying on the skills of our teams and the mobilization of our industry partners.”

Rodriguez said Roy’s appointment makes him “confident that Telefilm Canada’s important national goals will be strongly supported. Her extensive knowledge of the industry and her unifying and mobilizing leadership will help guide this organization well into the future.”

Robert Spickler, chair of Telefilm’s board of directors, called Roy “a proven bilingual leader who is well versed of the current challenges facing the audiovisual industry. As an ardent advocate of equity, diversity and inclusion on both sides of the camera, she will continue the work already begun by Telefilm and its partners to achieve an inclusive and representative industry.”

Photo courtesy of Telefilm Canada