Montreal World Film Festival

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Montreal World Film Festival
Location Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Founded 1977
Film titles 400+
Hosted by Montreal World Film Festival Group
Language International
www.ffm-montreal.org

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, which has a greater focus on Canadian and other North American films, the Montreal World Film Festival has a larger diversity of films from all over the world.[1]

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[citation needed]

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 Amériques
  • Special Grand Prix of the jury
  • Best Director
  • Best Actress
  • Best Actor
  • Best Screenplay
  • Best Artistic Contribution
  • Innovation Award
  • Zenith Award for The Best First Fiction Feature Film, (Golden, Silver and Bronze)[2]
  • 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 stated 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.[3]

The president of the Montreal World Film Festival (WFF) is Serge Losique; its vice-president is Danièle Cauchard.[4] 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.[5]

Impact

According to a survey by Léger Marketing:[6]

  • 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.[7]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "TIFF-MWFF Filmfest fisticuffs, Montreal against Toronto". nationalpost.com. Retrieved 2012-11-30. 
  2. ↑ AWARDS OF THE WORLD FILM FESTIVAL – Montréal 2012
  3. ↑ 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.
  4. ↑ See "contact" links at the official website.
  5. ↑ http://www.playbackmag.com/articles/daily/20070725/wff.html
  6. ↑ "Attendance and economic benefits of the mwff". . March 2008. 
  7. ↑ See "Canadian Distributors to Release Homolka Film." CBC News 10 Jan. 2006, accessed 31 Aug. 2006.

References

External links

  • Official Website Festival des Films du Monde de Montréal (Montreal World Film Festival [Montreal International Film Festival])
FIAPF-accredited film festivals
Competitive feature
Competitive specialized
Non-competitive
Documentary and shorts
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