The Montreal World Film Festival (WFF; french: le Festival des Films du Monde) was one of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

's oldest international

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 upo ...

s and the only competitive film festival in North America accredited by the FIAPF (although 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 ...

is North America's only accredited non-competitive festival). The public festival, which was founded in 1977 as a replacement for the defunct

Montreal International Film Festival The Montreal International Film Festival was an annual Canadian film festival, which took place in Montreal, Quebec from 1960 to 1967.

(1960–68), is held annually in late August in the city of

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- ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

. Unlike the

, 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. The festival was cancelled in 2019. In 2022, former festival president

Serge Losique Serge Losique (born in 1931 in Yugoslavia) is the founder & president of the Montreal World Film Festival since its opening. He is the father of television host Anne-Marie Losique. External linksMontreal World Film Festival* People from Mo ...

announced plans to revive the festival as the Global Montreal Film Festival, with a 2022 edition featuring free screenings of a selection of films that had previously screened at FFM, leading to a full revival of the festival in 2023.

Festival

Programmes

The World Film Festival is organised in various sections: *World Competition (features and shorts) *First Films World Competition (features) *Out of Competition (features) *Focus on World Cinema (features and Shorts) *Documentaries of the World (features, medium-length films, shorts) *Tributes *Cinema Under the Stars *Student Film Festival (Canadian and international shorts) *Chinese films (permanent from 2017)

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) *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.

Grand Prix des Amériques winners

Golden Zenith winners for The Best Feature Film in competition First Films World Competition

History

The stated goal of the

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.

The president of the Montreal World Film Festival (WFF) is

; its vice-president is Danièle Cauchard. Losique's management has been controversial. The WFF lost the sponsorship of its previous government cultural funders, 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 ...

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 New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

(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.

Impact

According to a survey by Léger Marketing: *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. In 2015 a group of employees claimed they were not paid. In 2016 many of the employees resigned citing poor leadership and financial uncertainty amongst other issues. In an interview with CTV News, Gazette entertainment columnist Bill Brownstein referred to Losique as having a "Napoleonic complex" and not "playing well with the other children" resulting in government and sponsors withdrawing their funding support. In 2019, the WFF announced that it is cancelling the 43rd edition of the event, leaving behind speculations about its later continuation.

Notes

References

* Alioff, Maurie.
"Montreal World Film Festival."
''Take One''. Dec. 2004. ''FindArticles.com''. Accessed 1 Sept. 2006. * Kelly, Brendan.

Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of t ...

. 9 Aug. 2006. Accessed 1 Sept. 2006.

'' 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.

External links

* {{Authority control Film festivals in Montreal Film festivals established in 1977 August events Defunct film festivals in Canada