The Montreal World Film Festival

The Montreal World Film Festival is trying its level best to get as many films as possible for their new festival. Serge Losique knows well that he is still going to have to battle to carve out a place for his event in the ever more competitive global film fest scene.

The problems started after the Canadian film financing agencies Telefilm Canada and Quebec’s Sodec were a little unhappy with the management of the festival. Both agencies declared a truce but have cut their funding considerably.

The dilemma is nothing new to any festival how to get A-list titles to their festivals during the lead up to the Labor Day. Some of the biggest festivals run during this time like the powerful Toronto Film festival and the Venice festival also takes place during the second part of the festival. Montreal runs through August 21 to Sept 1st this year, with 234 features and 221 shorts screening.

Given the proximity of Venice and Toronto, Montreal has a tough time snaring high-profile pics for its official competition, though Losique insists his fest compares favorably to any other festival around the world.

“If we receive some 2,000 films to select from each year, that means we have a lot of choice,” Losique says. “Look at the quality of our competition — you can compare it to Cannes or Venice.”
Losique did pull off at least one major coup by securing the world premier of French filmmaker Christophe Barratier’s much-anticipated “Faubourg 36,” which will open the festival and compete with 20 other features for the Grand Prix des Ameriques. Pic stars Gerard Jugnot and Clovis Cornillac in a story of unemployed workers in 1936 Paris who take over a music hall to mount their own show.

The competition is known for its exclusion of many American films but this director Matthew Wilder’s Bill Pullman in a drama loosely based on the life of science fiction great Philip K dick will be included.

The competition also includes the German pic “The Invention of Curried Sausage,” a World War II drama directed by Ulla Wagner and toplining Barbara Sukowa; Belgrade helmer Goran Markovic’s “The Tour,” about a troupe of actors touring Yugoslavia just as the country is descending into civil war; and helmer Manuel Gutierrez Aragon’s Spanish pic “Who’s Next,” about a young Basque terrorist who has just barely recovered from his wounds when he’s called upon for a dangerous new mission.

Montreal has not been really good creating a buzz. But they make sure they provide a platform for home grown talent and even some high profile filmmakers staying in Quebec. This year, there are two high-profile Quebecois films in competition: veteran docu helmer Benoit Pilon’s “The Necessities of Life,” with a screenplay by Pilon; and “The Novena” from helmer Bernard Emond, a dark drama about an Inuit man suffering from tuberculosis in the 1950s and starring Natar Ungalaaq from “Atanarjuat, the Fast Runner.” The other Quebec film competing is first-time feature director Stephane Gehami’s “En plein coeur,” about two car thieves.

Set to screen in a noncompetition berth is the third major Quebec film set for Montreal, director Sebastien Rose’s “Le Banquet,” a drama set during a crisis at a Quebec university.

In recent years, the Montreal fest has put the emphasis on the work of emerging filmmakers, and that continues with the First Films World Competition, which will screen 17 pics, including debut pics from Australia, Germany, Bolivia, Iran, Hungary, Russia, Turkey and Canada.

Hollywood will be repped with tributes to Tony Curtis and Alan Ladd Jr.; helmer Mark Rydell will be president of the official competition jury; and director Brian De Palma — who has often come to the festival simply to catch up on films from around the world — will give a master class at the Imperial Cinema.

Popularity: 1% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!