Following last year's longer-than-usual program, organisers of the Canberra International Film Festival were staring down the barrel of a $50,000 loss and a number of disenchanted punters.

But, with a fresh board, internal restructure and completely new direction, the festival looks set to return in November this year, smaller and better than ever.

New festival president Mike Lynskey, who is the only remaining member of the old board after all other members resigned this year, said the festival had been struggling with shrinking audiences for the past three years.

But last year's strategy to extend the length of the festival over three weekends instead of two had the opposite effect, and the event recorded a $50,000 loss.

"There were changes that happened with different, additional new cinemas in town, new ways of people getting films, and the upshot was that the festival needed to change," Mr Lynskey said.

"Generally speaking, people knew that if they didn't come to the festival, they'd see the film at some later stage anyway, and we need to give people something different. And not only the films that we show, but the experience of going to see them."

This year's festival will stretch across nine days, and will include a significant Canberra component – a selection of films from Canberra and by Canberrans.

"We want to do that in a way where people can see what good work is done here compared with what is being done in other places," he said.

"It's not just a matter of showing them just because they're local, it's finding that there's some really great stuff being done locally, that doesn't usually get seen, particularly in a context where they're alongside films from other parts of the world."

Mr Lynskey said another problem with the festival in recent years was that it was run outside the capital, with its director, Lex Lindsay, based in Sydney.

"Lex was very literate and skilled and talented and hard-working, but he didn't live in Canberra," he said.

"I think that it's no reflection on Lex. But I think that we need to have the festival curated and the films selected by people who live here and know what works for audiences and what doesn't. It's a sophisticated audience of people who are busy, and plugged into the world."

The new festival structure doesn't include a director at all, but will instead be programmed and curated by a "working board", all working on a volunteer basis.

The board includes Ronin Films founder Andrew Pike and Canberra Times contributor Cris Kennedy, who works as head of education at the National Film and Sound Archive.

Mr Lynskey, who has lived in Canberra on and off since 1975, was the long-time founding CEO of the Fred Hollows Foundation, a job that took him away from his Canberra-based business raising money for film projects.

He returned to Canberra in 2004 to become chief executive of Reconciliation Australia, and most recently worked in public affairs at the United States Embassy.