Michèle Maheux is a Canadian film industry executive, who served as the executive director and chief operating officer of the Toronto International Film Festival from 1998 to 2019.[1]
Formerly associated with the Canadian Film Institute,[2] she worked a publicist for Cineplex Entertainment before joining TIFF in 1989 as a publicist and communications director; she was then promoted to managing director of TIFF in 1998.[3] Her most noted achievements with the organization included the launch of the Cinematheque Ontario program of year-round film screenings, and the creation of the TIFF Bell Lightbox.[4]
She announced her retirement from TIFF in summer 2018, and was succeeded the following year by Joana Vicente.[5]
In 2019 she was named the winner of the Toronto Film Critics Association's annual Clyde Gilmour Award for lifetime achievement.[6] She selected filmmaker Lina Rodriguez as the recipient of the award's "pay-it-forward" grant to an emerging filmmaker.[7]