The San Francisco International Film Festival has recruited a new programming team for its upcoming 45th annual festival under newly appointed executive director Roxanne Messina Captor, an Emmy-nominated producer and director who joined the festival in Jan this year.

Carl Spence joins San Francisco from the Seattle International Film Festival where he was associate director for eight years, while Linda Blackaby joins from the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival where she was program director. Blackaby was also formerly co-director of programming for the Hamptons International Film Festival and senior program consultant for the Washington DC International Film Festival. She began her career as founding director of the Philadelphia Festival Of World Cinema.

In addition Messina Captor has introduced the festival's first guest programmer Roger Garcia, an Asian film expert who founded the Hong Kong International Film Festival.

Recently Rachel Rosen, formerly associate director of the San Francisco festival, moved to Los Angeles to become director of programming for the IFP West/Los Angeles Film Festival.

The 45th event takes place next April.