The National Film Board of Canada appointed Suzanne Guèvremont as its new president and government film commissioner.
She replaces Claude Joli-Coeur, who led the Canadian public filmmaker for nearly nine years and officially stepped down on Friday.
NFB productions and co-productions have garnered 78 Oscar nominations and won the grand prize 12 times, including for animated short The Danish poet by director Torill Kove in 2006 and the animated short Ryan by Chris Landreth in 2004.
The NFB received an honorary Oscar in 1988 for overall excellence in filmmaking. Early Oscars pioneering NFB directors include Stuart Legg, who won Best Documentary Short for Churchill Island in 1941 and Norman McLaren winning for Neighborsalso in the category best documentary short, in 1952.
Guèvremont begins his five-year term at the NFB on November 28. As a seasoned producer of 3D animation, video games and visual effects in Quebec, Guèvremont has been the general manager of Synthèse – Pôle Image Québec and more recently NAD-UQAC, the digital college of arts and animation, position she had held since 1999.
“The Canadian landscape is changing, the means at our disposal to create content are constantly evolving, as are the behaviors of audiences. I very much look forward to meeting all of the teams across Canada and working with them as we pursue our goals,” she said in a statement Friday.
“Pop culture fanatic. Introvert. Devoted food trailblazer. Bacon geek. Lifelong coffee evangelist.”