World Film Festival president Serge Losique is pleased about this year's 'solid' line-up.
At the recent unveiling of the programme, Losique reiterated his stance that, above all, what counts at the Montreal festival are the films: 'It's not about hype and stars. It's all about film.'
It's a position Losique has held for years and one clearly directed at Toronto's star-studded International Film Festival, which is dominated by Hollywood studios and glitzy gala presentations.
As its name suggests, the World Film Festival is an event that allows audiences to view films from around the globe. There are over 400 films from 50 different countries. Besides the usual American, French and Japanese fare, there are films on view from Bosnia, Burkino Faso and Thailand.
Each year a specific country is highlighted. This year, the honour goes to Iran, with nine features, including The Mirror by acclaimed Iranian director Jafar Panahi (The White Balloon). Majid Majidi's The Children of Heaven is in official competition.
Over the years, Montreal audiences have been exposed to Russian, Israeli, Turkish, Spanish, Scandinavian and Hungarian cinema. Each tribute offers an average of 10 films, which gives viewers a good cross-section of the variety and diversity of contemporary film production in that particular country.
Without ever leaving the city, Montrealers can travel the world from an air-conditioned screening room. This is one reason why the Montreal public has solidly supported the festival for the past 20 years. Martin Siberok
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