Festival International de Films de Montréal (FIFM), also known in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

as the New Montreal FilmFest was a

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending up ...

held in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

in 2005 to focus on

Francophone French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the ...

films. Originally intended as an annual event, the festival became mired in rivalry with two competing festivals—the

Montreal World Film Festival The Montreal World Film Festival (WFF; french: le Festival des Films du Monde) was one of Canada's oldest international film festivals and the only competitive film festival in North America accredited by the FIAPF (although the Toronto Interna ...

and the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

—such that the New Montreal FilmFest was ultimately held only once. The founding of the FIFM resulted from a yearlong dispute between the funding agencies SODEC and

Telefilm Canada Telefilm Canada is a Crown corporation reporting to Canada's federal government through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. Headquartered in Montreal, Telefilm provides services to the Canadian audiovisual industry with four regional offices in V ...

and the organizers of the

(WFF)—Festival des Films du Monde - Montréal (FFM)—in 2004. These two former sponsors of the FFM/WFF called for proposals for a new film festival and ultimately shifted their funding to the New Montreal FilmFest, which was inaugurated in October 2005. The New Montreal FilmFest, produced by Spectra Entertainment (owners of the Montreal Spectrum theater), was initially headed by

Daniel Langlois Daniel Langlois (born 1957 in Jonquière) is the president and founder of the Daniel Langlois Foundation, Ex-Centris, and Media Principia Inc. Daniel Langlois also founded Softimage Inc., serving as its president and chief technology officer fro ...

, founder of SoftImage (subsequently sold to Microsoft) and Ex-Centris. Langlois had previously directed the Montreal Festival of New Cinema and New Media—Festival de Nouveau Cinema et Nouveaux Media, which was renamed

Festival du Nouveau Cinéma The Festival du nouveau cinéma or FNC (English: ''Festival of New Cinema'') is an annual independent film festival held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, featuring independent films from around the world. Over 160,000 people attend each year. One of ...

in 2004 (Montreal's independent film festival). The involvement of Langlois intended to counter prior criticisms of lack of professionalism in the FFM/WFF (run by

Serge Losique Serge Losique (born in 1931 in Yugoslavia) is the founder & president of the Montreal World Film Festival The Montreal World Film Festival (WFF; french: le Festival des Films du Monde) was one of Canada's oldest international film festivals an ...

) and to merge the FCMM (renamed the FNC in 2004) and the New Montreal FilmFest into one new festival. The FNC would not agree to such a merger, and scheduling conflicts between the New Montreal FilmFest and the FNC led to Langlois' early departure from FilmFest. The 2005 event was eventually directed by Moritz de Hadeln, who had previously headed the

Locarno International Film Festival The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, ...

, the

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...

, the

Venice International Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...

—and founded the

Visions du Réel Visions du Réel (Visions of Reality) is an internationally renowned documentary film festival held in April each year in Nyon, Switzerland. Established in 1969 as the Nyon International Documentary Film Festival, the event adopted its current n ...

documentary film festival of Nyon, Switzerland. Moritz de Hadeln had also been a long-time rival of

's. "FilmFest officials decided to concentrate on Francophone films, avoiding the Hollywood focus of the Toronto International Film Festival and the world cinema of ergeLosique’s festival FM/WFF"."New Film Fest Folds,"
'' CBC News'', Arts & Entertainment, February 11, 2006. But the 2005 inaugural New Montreal FilmFest raised early criticism and did not meet expectations."New Montreal Film Fest under Fire from Established Rivals,"
'' CBC News'', Arts & Entertainment, March 1, 2005. The advance negative publicity and its timing and selection of films were criticized widely, resulting in poor ticket sales. In early 2006 the New Montreal FilmFest was terminated:

Telefilm revealed that FilmFest lost $850,000, spurring Losique to call for a public inquiry into the "resounding and humiliating failure" of the Montreal FilmFest.

References

See also