The Toronto InternationalFilm Festival (TIFF) has appointed Cameron Bailey as one of its internationalprogrammers. He returns to the festival after an absence of eight years.

A programmer, film criticand screenwriter, Bailey will focus on films from Africa and South Asia andfilmmakers from the US and Europe. Bailey has a had a long association withTIFF dating back to 1990 when he programmed Canadian films. In 1995, he foundedTIFF's Planet Africa strand and programmed until 1997. "Cameron is simply oneof the best programmers in the world," said TIFF co-director Noah Cowan.

At the same time, thefestival also announced it is discontinuing the Planet Africa programme andfolding its remit - films from Africa and the African diaspora - into thevarious festival strands. Indeed, that decision prompted Bailey to pursue theinternational programming position. His programming peer Gaylene Gould hasaccepted a job at the British Film Institute.

"I was concerned what wouldhappen to those films," Bailey told Screendaily.com. He said his new job willinvolve a great deal of travel, including stops at the Pan-African Film and TVFestival in Burkina Faso in February and India in April or May.

Bailey hits the groundrunning. His first stop is Sundance.