Montreal World Film Festival
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The Montreal World Film Festival (WFF) — Festival des Films du Monde - Montréal (FFM) — is one of Canada's's oldest international film festivals.[1]
According to its official website:
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.[2]
The president of the Montreal World Film Festival (WFF) is Serge Losique; its vice-president is Danièle Cauchard.[3] 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, to be managed by Spectra Entertainment and headed by Daniel Langlois (of SoftImage and Ex-Centris and FCMM). After the inaugural edition of that new festival was unsuccessful, it was abandoned early in 2006.
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]
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.
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[edit] Notes
- ^ See its history in the archives of its official website. The first edition of this festival occurred in 1977. The thirtieth edition is 24 August through 4 September 2006.
- ^ 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.
- ^ See "contact" links at the official website.
- ^ See "Canadian Distributors to Release Homolka Film." CBC News 10 Jan. 2006, accessed 31 Aug. 2006.
[edit] 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.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Official Website Festival des Films du Monde de Montréal (Montreal World Film Festival [Montreal International Film Festival])
- Telefilm Canada: Film Festivals in Montréal