MONTREAL -- Alliance Vivafilm, one of Canada's largest film distributors, is promoting Patrick Roy to the top of the food chain.

Roy, who is already the president, will add executive managing director to his title, thus replacing Guy Gagnon as Vivafilm's top executive. Gagnon, who will remain president of the company's board, is changing hats so he has more time to concentrate on the two movie theaters he runs: Le Carrefour du Nord in St-Jérôme and a new cinema complex in Beloeil, a suburb of Montreal.

"It feels natural," Roy tells Playback Daily. "I've been with the company for 14 years, so I've been preparing for it step by step. I have worked with Guy for 10 years."

"I am entering another chapter of my life and I consider myself lucky to have worked in this milieu with such a dream team," Gagnon said in a statement.

In 2006, Vivafilm promoted Gagnon to the newly created position of executive managing director and chairman of the board, while upping Roy as his replacement as president. The pair is credited with successes such as Bon Cop, Bad Cop (2006), La grande séduction (2003) and Séraphin: Un homme et son péché (2002).

"There will be no major changes. We have a great distribution team in Quebec and Toronto. I might hire more people but I'm not sure yet in what capacity," says Roy.

Roy believes it's the perfect time to steer Vivafilm's ship, as it's now the top film distributor in Quebec. "We have a 17% market share. We are ahead of the Americans and all of our Quebec competitors."

Roy dismisses concerns that the move of Alliance Films' head office to Montreal earlier this year could potentially have a negative impact on English-Canadian cinema.

"I think this is a chance to better co-ordinate activities between Quebec and the rest of Canada. In Quebec, we have an expertise in terms of distribution and generating ideas that should be of interest to English Canada. We understand the market here and perhaps we can export some of this knowledge to the rest of the country," he says.

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This story has been corrected. C.R.A.Z.Y. was distributed by TVA Films, not Vivafilm as originally reported.