| Montreal World Film Festival | |
|---|---|
| Location | Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Hosted by | Montreal World Film Festival Group |
| Number of films | 300 - 400 |
| Language | International |
| Official website | |
The Montreal World Film Festival (WFF) (French: le Festival des Films du Monde; alternative official name Montreal International Film Festival, not commonly used), 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 (although the Toronto International Film Festival is North America's only accredited non-competitive festival). 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 (prominently) English-speaking Canada, the Montreal World Film Festival focuses on various kinds of films from all over the world, while the former features not just international films, but also more of a focus on Canadian films (including Quebec) and other North American films.[1]
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The World Film Festival is organised in various sections:
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.
Competition
In addition the festival-going public votes for the films they liked best in different categories:
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 (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]
According to a survey by Léger Marketing:[4]
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.[5]
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