Montreal World Film Festival

Coordinates: 43°40′11″N 79°23′22″W / 43.66972°N 79.38944°W / 43.66972; -79.38944

The Montreal World Film Festival (WFF) (French: le Festival des Films du Monde), founded in 1977, is one of Canada's oldest international film festivals and the only competitive film festival in North America accredited by the FIAPF. The public festival is held annually in late August in the city of Montreal in Quebec. Unlike the Toronto International Film Festival, its counterpart in English-speaking Canada, the Montreal World Film Festival focuses on various kinds of films from all over the world but features few if any produced in Hollywood.

The 31st Festival des Films du Monde was held between August 21 and September 1, 2008.

The 2009 edition will take place from August 27 to September 7, 2009. The President of the Jury has yet to be announced.

Festival

Programmes

The World Film Festival is organised in various sections:

• World Competition - The main event of the festival.
• First Films World Competition
• Hors Concours (World Greats, out-of competition)
• Focus on World Cinema (Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania)
• Documentaries of the World
• Tributes
• Cinema Under the Stars
• Canadian Student Film Festival

Juries

Prior to the beginning of each event, the Festival’s board of directors appoints the juries who hold sole responsibility for choosing which films will receive the blessing of a WFF award. Jurors are chosen from a wide range of international artists, based on their body of work and respect from their peers.

Awards

Competition

• Grand prix des Americas
• Special Grand Prix of the jury
• Best Director
• Best Actress
• Best Actor
• Best Screenplay
• Best Artistic Contribution
• Innovation Award
• Short Films (1st Prize and Jury Prize)

In addition the festival-going public votes for the films they liked best in different categories:

• People's Choice Award
• Award for the Most Popular Canadian Film
• Glauber Rocha Award for the Best Film from Latin America
• Best Documentary Film Award
• Best Canadian Short Film Award.

History

The goal of the Montreal World Film Festival (Montreal International Film Festival) is to:

encourage cultural diversity and understanding between nations, to foster the cinema of all continents by stimulating the development of quality cinema, to promote filmmakers and innovative works, to discover and encourage new talents, and to promote meetings between cinema professionals from around the world.^[1]

The president of the Montreal World Film Festival (WFF) is Serge Losique; its vice-president is Danièle Cauchard.^[2] Losique's management has been controversial. The WFF lost the sponsorship of its previous government cultural funders, SODEC and Telefilm Canada as a result of disagreements with Losique in 2004. Subsequently, these two funding agencies announced that they would support a new international film festival, called the New Montreal FilmFest (FIFM), to be managed by Spectra Entertainment and headed by Daniel Langlois (of SoftImage and Ex-Centris and the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma). After the inaugural edition of that new festival was unsuccessful, it was abandoned early in 2006. As of July 2007, Losique's lawsuits against the funding agencies were dropped, paving the way for a restoration of government funding. [2]

Impact

According to a survey by Léger Marketing:^[3]

• Approximately 385,000 attended the 2008 World Film Festival. Of these, 323,352 (84%) were local filmgoers and 61,591 (16%) were out-of-town visitors.
• Among visitors, 27% were less than 35 years old, 34% were 35 to 54 years old and 39% were more than 54 years old.
• During their stay in the greater Montreal area, visitors attracted here by the Festival spent an average of $921.60. Visitors from outside the province spent on average twice as much as visitors from Quebec, and this money was spent specifically within the framework of their attendance at the Festival.
• Tourist spending generated by visitors to the Montreal World Film Festival is estimated at $21 million.

Controversy

In 2005, Losique first announced and later withdrew the film Karla from the WFF after the principal sponsor of the festival, Air Canada, threatened to withdraw its sponsorship of the festival if that film were included. The film — about Karla Homolka, a young woman who was convicted of manslaughter and who served twelve years in prison for her part in the kidnapping, sex-enslavement, rapes and murders of teenage girls, including her own sister, in a case said to involve ephebophilia — was controversial in Canada, with many calling for its boycott throughout the country.^[4]

Notes

1. ^ Information from the home page. Cf. the "Manifesto" of the organization for its perspective and goals in the context of its account of its history.
2. ^ See "contact" links at the official website.
3. ^ "ATTENDANCE AND ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF THE MWFF". [1]. March 2008. http://www.ffm-montreal.org/cgi-bin/webcomm-2.2?site=ffm&lng=en&idx=1&ref=170. 
4. ^ See "Canadian Distributors to Release Homolka Film." CBC News 10 Jan. 2006, accessed 31 Aug. 2006.

References

• Alioff, Maurie. "Montreal World Film Festival." Take One. Dec. 2004. FindArticles.com. Accessed 1 Sept. 2006.
• Kelley, Brendan. World Film Festival staggers into 30th year. Montreal Gazette. 9 Aug. 2006. Accessed 1 Sept. 2006.
• Montreal Film Fest Might Fade to Black." CBC 30 July 2004, Arts & Entertainment. Accessed 1 Sept. 2006.
• "Montreal Film Fest Sues Telefilm to Stop Proposed New Festival." CBC 15 Dec. 2004, Arts & Entertainment. Accessed 1 Sept. 2006.
• "Montreal Jazz Fest Organizers Chosen to Create New Film Fest." CBC 17 Dec. 2004, Arts & Entertainment. Accessed 1 Sept. 2006.
• "Quebec Gov't Questions SODEC over Failed FilmFest." CBC 24 Feb. 2006, Arts & Entertainment. Accessed 1 Sept. 2006.

See also

• Montreal International Jazz Festival
• SODEC
• Telefilm Canada

External links

• Official Website Festival des Films du Monde de Montréal (Montreal World Film Festival [Montreal International Film Festival])
• Telefilm Canada: Film Festivals in Montreal