- Montreal World Film Festival
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Coordinates: 43°40′11″N 79°23′22″W / 43.66972°N 79.38944°W
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]
Contents
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
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
- 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 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]
Impact
According to a survey by Léger Marketing:[4]
- 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.[5]
Notes
- ^ http://www.nationalpost.com/TIFF+MWFF+Filmfest+fisticuffs+Montreal+against+Toronto/3405019/story.html
- ^ 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.
- ^ "ATTENDANCE AND ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF THE MWFF". [1]. March 2008. http://www.ffm-montreal.org/cgi-bin/webcomm-2.2?site=ffm&lng=en&idx=1&ref=170.
- ^ See "Canadian Distributors to Release Homolka Film." CBC News 10 Jan. 2006, accessed 31 Aug. 2006.
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.
See also
- Montreal International Jazz Festival
- SODEC
- Telefilm Canada
- Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)
External links
- Official Website Festival des Films du Monde de Montréal (Montreal World Film Festival [Montreal International Film Festival])
- Telefilm Canada: Film Festivals in Montreal
FIAPF-accredited film festivals Competitive feature Berlin · Cannes · Cairo · Goa · Karlovy Vary · Locarno · Mar del Plata · Moscow · Montreal · San Sebastian · Shanghai · Tokyo · Warsaw · Venice
Competitive specialized Antalya · Bogota · Brussels · Cartagena · Cluj Napoca (TIFF) · Courmayeur · Frankfurt · Ghent · Gijon · Istanbul · Jeonju · Kerala (Trivandrum) · Kiev · Los Angeles (AFI FEST) · Namur · Pusan (Busan) · Sarajevo · Setúbal · Sitges · Stockholm · Sydney · Tallinn · Thessaloniki · Turin · Valencia Jove · Valencia Mediterranean · Wiesbaden (goEast) · Wrocław
Non-competitive Documentary and shorts Bilbao · Krakow · Oberhausen · St. Petersburg · Tampere
Categories:- Festivals in Montreal
- Film festivals in Quebec
- International film festivals
- Recurring events established in 1977
- August events
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