The Montreal World Film Festival

When all of the big summer festivals are finishing their runs, there is still one more cultural festival in Montreal specifically for film lovers. The 37th edition of The Montreal World Film Festival, which ran from August 22nd to September 2nd, saw an influx of tourists enter the city just as many students and adults returned from their relaxing summer vacations. I had a privileged chance to sit down with Communication Director Henry Welsh to discuss the festival and the films that were presented.

The festival began in 1977, just as the Venice Film Festival came to an end. However, the concept of showing cultural films in Montreal goes back to the 1967 World's Fair where the festival's director at the time, Serge Losique, presented an exhibition of cultural films. This lead to the inception of the Montreal World Film Festival 10 years later. Montreal is known as a important city because of its cultural acceptance, and it is known for having good cinema.

Nearly 60 to 70 countries participate in the festival each year. Mr. Welsh mentions that there are films from Germany, Kazakhstan, Korea, Japan, Latin America and Israel screening in 2013. The Festival has also maintained a close relationship with China and the Chinese delegation. This relationship is so close that Serge Losique attended the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympic Games in China (our Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper was also invited, but declined the invitation, adds Mr. Welsh). There are also close relations to Iran and the last time an Iranian director was allowed to travel in 2009 it was for this particular festival. When asked if there was any country that was missing that the festival would like to receive, there is a sense that all countries participate due to the 2,000 films that are screened. However, there are only a selection of films shown, meaning that some countries might not be seen at the festival every year.

Any country can submit a film via an open form on the Internet, by sending a DVD copy of the film, or the members are invited to national and key-festival screenings. Iranian directors have invited the members of festival for private screenings. It is also a key festival for students to submit their films because it offers diverse possibilities for new comers, including schools in Israel and Canada (Concordia's film production students have submitted films). The films are judged on criteria that centers around the guidelines of La Fédération Internationale de l'Art Photographique (FIAP), which are similar to Cannes or Berlin. There are world and international premieres. It is hard to ask a person to be on the jury for 10 days. The president is offered several names from the people that he works with of who would be a good jury member.

As for the audience favourites, Mr. Welsh talks about the film A Thousand Times Goodnight with Juliette Binoche receiving a standing ovation. The same can be said about Sidney Lumet's The Verdict, Jean-Pierre Roy and Michel Breton's La langue à terre, and the film Blue and not so pink directed by Miguel Ferrari. Mr. Welsh adds that members from Variety magazine mentioned to him that the festival keeps on getting better year after year. The reason is because of the rich diversity of culture that this festival offers its audience.

--Remi Caron-Liss hosts At the Movies with Iconic Sounds every Tuesday from 8-9 am.