Jury of the 38th Montreal World Film Festival

Sergio Castellitto, president

 The Montreal World Film Festival is pleased to announce that  Franco-Algerian director-producer Rachid Bouchareb, Andréanne Bournival, grande dame of Quebec television and cinema, and noted Icelandic producer Fridrik Thor Fridriksson will complete the international jury of the 38th Festival. These three join already announced jurors, actresses Ana Torrent and Jane Zhang under the presidency of Italian actor and director Sergio Castellitto.

“We are happy and honored to have a jury of this diversity and calibre to judge our official competition,” declared MWFF president Serge Losique. “Their different perspectives, whether geographic or aesthetic, reflect the openness to other cultures that the Festival has had as its guiding light since its inauguration.”

The only A category competitive event in North America recognized by FIAPF (the International Federation of Film Producers Associations), the Montreal World Film Festival will be held in 25 days from August 21 to September 1, 2014.

The Jury

Rachid Bouchareb

            Rachid Bouchareb is a French film director of Algerian descent. From 1977 to 1983, he worked as an assistant director at France’s state television production company, Société française de production (S. F. P), and subsequently for broadcasters TF1 and Antenne 2. He formed his own production company, 3B, with his associate Jean Bréhat in 1988. Bouchareb began making short films in the 1980s.

            His featured film debut came in 1985 with Bâton Rouge. Since then his acclaimed films have included Poussières de vie (Dust of Life) (which competed in the 1994 MWFF before receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film); Little Senegal in 2001, as well as Two Men in Town in 2014, both shown in competition at the Berlin Film Festival; and Days of Glory, which received the Best Foreign Language Film nomination in 2006 and also won prizes at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. His film, Hors-la-loi, competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival and it was the Algerian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards and was one of the five final nominees.

Andréanne Bournival

            Over her long career in program management at several television channels – Télé-Québec (acquisitions and co-productions), Radio-Canada, TV5 and Canal D – then with the French production program of the National Film Board of Canda, Andréanne Bournival has always looked to ensure a prominent presence for the cinema, both from here and abroad, on the small screen.

            Andréanne Bournival was President of the Quebec section of the Academy of Cinema and Television. For her, the MWFF is a passport to the world, a reflection on the great and the small history of humanity, a way to live life intensely through the power of dreams, a connection to the sensitivity and creativity of filmmakers. The MWFF is also the opportunity to share her favourite movies with family and friends. She will be representing the public on this year's jury.

Fridirik Thor Fridriksson

            Director, writer, actor and producer Fridrik Thor Fridriksson began his filmmaking carrier with a series of eximental films and documentaries in the early 1980s (The Blacksmith and Rock in Reykjavik). In 1987, he founded The Icelandic Film Corporation, which has become Iceland's most important production company, producing Fridriksson’s films as well as working with other Icelandic directors and producers. Through Fridriksson's international reputation the company has built a network of internationally well-established co-production partner companies.

            As a director, Fridriksson gained international recognition and critical acclaim with his second feature Children of Nature, which won best artistic contribution in the 1991 MWFF before being nominated for an Oscar as Best Foreign Language Film. In 2006, he played in Lars von Trier's film Le Directør and in Jóhann Sigmarsson long-feature  Plan B.  He has also coproduced such films as Trier's Dancer in the Dark  and Hal Hatley's No such Thing.

Ana Torrent

            Ana Torrent began her career as a child in what some consider to be the greatest of Spanish films, Victor Erice’s Spirit of the Beehive (1973) and she quickly confirmed her precocious talent in Carlos Saura’s masterful Cria Cuervos (1976) and Elisa vida mia (1976) . She has since worked with many other Spanish directors, including Jaime Armiñan, Julio Medem, Helena Tabema and Alejandro Amenábar, whose Tesis garnered Torrent a Goya nomination and best actress notices at several festivals. Her role in Jaime de Armiñan’s El Nido (1980) earned her best actress at the MWFF.     Torrent’s talent has attracted the interest of many foreign directors, including Klaus Kirschner (Misa en Si Minor), Gilo Pontecorvo (El Tunel), Peter Greenaway (The Tulse Lupper Suitcases I, II and III), Roland Joffé (There Be Dragons) and Justin Chadwick (The Other Boleyn Girl). She has also acted extensively on the small screen, for Spanish networks as well as the BBC and Italy’s RAI, and on stage, where this September she will play in the Spanish National Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s Richard III.

Jane Zhang

            Singer and actress Jane Zhang, who performs in Cantonese and Mandarin as well as English and Spanish, burst onto the scene in 2005 after her appearance on Super Voice Girl, the mega-popular Chinese singing competition, and her vocal talent quickly propelled her to Chinese superstardom, with frequent comparisons to Mariah Carey and Celine Dion. Her album, Reform, went double platinum within a month, a sales record to this day. Her talents were soon harnessed for the screen, where she contributed the theme song for Gordon Chan’s Painted Skin, and Only for Love for Feng Xiao Gang’s The Banquet. She made her acting debut in 2006 in McDull the Alumni and has since participated in several other productions for large and small screens, including Panda Express and Mulan. Zhang made her American television debut on the Oprah Winfrey Show and she was the first Chinese singer on the red carpet of the Grammys. She performed in a World Peace One concert with U2, Madonna, Pink Floyd and Green Day and appeared at the first New York China Film Festival in 2010 .

Sergio Castellitto, President

            Born in Rome, Sergio Castellitto began his career in the theatre after studying at the Accademia Nazionale d'Arte Drammatica, and made his film debut in the early 1980s. An actor whose versatility was apparent early on, Castellitto subsequently worked with some of the leading lights of Italian cinema: Mario Monicelli (Rossini! Rossini!, 1991), Marco Ferreri (The Flesh, 1991), Francesca Archibugi (The Great Pumpkin, 1993, for which he won the David di Donatello Award for Best Leading Actor, and With Closed Eyes, 1994), Giuseppe Tornatore (The Star Maker, 1995, Nastro d'argento as Best Leading Actor), Ettore Scola (Unfair Competition, 2001), Gabriele Muccino (The Last Kiss, 2001), Marco Bellocchio (My Mother's Smile, 2002, and The Wedding Director, 2006), Paolo Virzì (Caterina in the Big City, 2004) and Gianni Amelio (The Missing Star, 2006).

            Castellitto’s talent was noticed by foreign directors as well and he appeared in such films as Luc Besson’s The Big Blue (1988), Jacques Rivette’s Who Knows (2001) and Around a Small Moountain (2009), Sandra Nettlebeck’s Mostly Martha (2001), Paris je t’aime (2006, Isabel Coixet’s segment) and Andrew Adamson’s The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008). He made his directorial debut in 1999 with Libero Burro and confirmed his filmmaking talent, especially, in the critical and commercial hit Don’t Move (2004), starring Penelope Cruz from a story by his wife Margaret Mazzantini. He has since followed with two more films which he wrote, directed and starred in, Love & Slaps (2010) and Twice Born (2012).