David Ansen, longtime film critic for Newsweek magazine, has been named lead programmer of the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
Ansen, who wrote for the weekly magazine from 1977 to 2008, will acquire films from distribution outlets and other companies and will also help select the films that will be shown during the festival, according to a report in The Press-Enterprise.
His appointment was announced earlier this month.
In addition to his journalism career, Ansen has experience working with film festivals, having been a member of the New York Film Festival’s selection committee. He was also artistic director of the Los Angeles Film Festival for several years and has been on juries at the Sundance Film Festival, the report stated.
The Palm Springs International Film Festival is scheduled to run Jan. 1 – Jan. 11, 2016.