SILVERDOCS festival director Patricia Finneran will move over to the Sundance Institute as the Documentary Film Programme's senior consultant, New York, commencing on November 1.

Finneran replaces Bruni Burres, the long-time executive director of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, who is moving to a full-time position as executive producer at the International Centre For Transitional Justice.

In addition to representing the Sundance Documentary Programme internationally, Finneran will be responsible for recommending film projects, maintaining the Documentary Programme's New York base and working on its initiatives like the Sundance Doc Fund and the Skoll Foundation's Stories Of Change: Social Entrepreneurship In Focus Through Documentary.

'Under Tricia Finneran's leadership, SILVERDOCS has become one of the leading documentary film festivals in the country,' the Sundance Institute's Documentary Film Programme's director Cara Mertes said. 'Her background encompassing diverse aspects of film, television and digital media lends itself perfectly to the work we do here at the Institute. She has been a great advocate for the form, and we are thrilled she is joining the DFP team.'

Finneran has served as SILVERDOCS festival director since 2003. Prior to joining she was artistic director of the IFP Market.