With its 21st edition on the horizon, the Montreal World Film Festival is back with its usual sections; the Official Competition (19 films), Hors Concours (out of competition); Cinema of Today: Reflections of Our Time; Cinema of Tomorrow: New Trends; Latin American Cinema; Panorama Canada; and TV Films. Iranian cinema will be under the spotlight with nine new films (plus one in competition) and five Cannes Critics' Week films will be shown. Two tribute movies, Marcello Mastroianni, I Remember, Yes, I Remember and Intolerance will also unspool, honouring the late Italian actor and DW Griffith. Running the show, as they have since the outset, are president Serge Losique and vice president Daniele Cauchard.
But while the Montreal festival has become relatively subdued, compared to its glitzier Toronto rival, which now snags far more big American and international films, it's Montreal's market that still makes the difference, says Gilles Beriault, director of the market.
"The market is stabilising in that we've moved from a formal market structure [three years ago], with booths and everything, to a more friendly structure. The market is more of a meeting place than a formal market... where people set up a booth and wait from ne in the morning until the afternoon for people to come by. Now people can exchange cards and leave notes."
Distributors, he adds, don't need a formal market to do business anyway. "They are involved right from the start with the picture. Most of the time, they'll buy a film just on the script, just on the director's name. So there's not that need to have booths."
That doesn't mean the market, in whatever form, isn't still of value in Montreal, says Beriault. "I think it's a very important factor in the festival and the market is doing its share of business. You've got hundreds of people who keep coming year after year so they must be doing something, otherwise they wouldn't come back."
Attending Montreal are "most of the Americans - 20th Century Fox sends people on a regular basis, Warner we have got, naturally Miramax, October, and some of the smaller ones, like Strand Releasing and Home Box Office. And from Europe, we have lots of Germans, Dutch, French and Scandinavians, who all come year after year."
Among the significant and typical attendees, says Beriault, are people like distributor/producer Wolfram Tichy from TiMe in Germany, who has just finished four sci-fi films, co-produced with the Halifax-based Salter Street Films. "He'll be here for his 20th year, so out of 21 years, it's not so bad."
Among the films launched by the festival and through the market - attended by 874 industry professionals last year - was the Quebec thriller Liste noire (Black List), one of Quebec's biggest recent home grown hits. "People attending the market went crazy. That film sold to, I don't know how many countries, right on the spot." And if it didn't sell in Montreal, the deal was completed in Mifed, spurred on by its Montreal showing, adds Beriault. Significant other launches in Montreal have ranged from My Left Foot to The Usual Suspects to Once Were Warriors.
Another film recently sold in Montreal was last year's Yugoslavian anti-war drama Pretty Village, Pretty Flame. "After [its] second screening, the director, who was in Montreal, had to change all his plans - he had a week of meetings down in Los Angeles because all the Majors wanted to see him.
"The Fifth Generation of Chinese directors were launched here too," he adds. With a nod towards other regular Montreal visitors, such as The Star Channel's Tony Watt from Hong Kong, Beriault is confident in saying, "There's a lot of activity in Montreal.
"Montreal is the place where you can have a pretty good idea of what is happening throughout the world, because we have such a large selection [300 films]... I think if there's anything worthwhile that has been done in the past year or so, it will be shown in Montreal."
FESTIVAL DES FILMS DU MONDE
22 August-2 September 1997
1432 rue de Bleury, Montre, Quebec, Canada H3A 2J1
Tel: (514) 848 3883
Fax: (514) 848 3886
e-mail: ffm@interlink.net
website: http://www.ffm-montreal.org
Contact: Suzanne Villeneuve; Serge Losique, president;
Daniele Cauchard, vice president
Gilles Beriault, market director
[Home ] [Content ] [The Sponsors ] [The Team ] [Comments ]
