Montreal World Film Festival

History

Losique launched the festival in part as a response to the inaugural 1976 Festival of Festivals, as he reportedly believed that Montreal was a more appropriate location than Toronto to be the host of a prestige film festival. After screening an inaugural program in summer 1977, he pursued the FIAPF accreditation, which was secured in early 1978. The 1978 event, however, saw the first instance of Losique using his position to take a public swipe at the Toronto festival, when he sent four films that had been booked to appear at both festivals back to their distributors instead of forwarding the prints to Toronto as directed.

As early as 1980, the festival was marketing itself as one that was focused more on the films than their stars, with Losique regularly trumpeting that motto through the years as the thing that made his festival better than Toronto's.

By 1985, Losique was already beginning to attract criticism for running the festival in an "authoritarian" and "Napoleonic" manner, with programming driven disproportionately by his own personal taste in film rather than consideration for what would appeal to the general public. Through the 1980s, the Montreal and Toronto film festivals were typically seen as different but complementary events, although Losique continued to lash out at any media suggestion that the events were comparable in prestige or quality, and his most consistent public relations strategy in this era was to release public statements criticizing TIFF's public relations statements for being insufficiently deferential to his festival's superiority.

By the 1990s, however, the MWFF was clearly losing prestige as TIFF gained in international clout; even within Montreal, its prominence was being increasingly challenged by the Festival du nouveau cinéma, which although older than the MWFF had previously been much smaller until gaining momentum in the early 1990s. In 1991, for the first time, newspapers in Montreal began running front-page stories calling for Losique to step down and hand over leadership of the festival to a successor due to poor programming decisions and declining attendance.

In 1998, the festival faced heavy criticism when it opted to present a lifetime achievement award to Sandra Bullock, despite her still having been known only for a few hit films over the past couple of years at that point, rather than the sort of sustained career typically required to earn lifetime achievement honours. This was perceived as undermining Losique's longtime assertion that his event was film-driven instead of star-driven while TIFF was the other way around.

By 2000, even filmmakers from Quebec were frequently bypassing MWFF, instead opting to "stampede down the 401" to TIFF due to its much higher international profile before screening in Montreal at the FNC or the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois instead of the MWFF.

The WFF lost the sponsorship of its previous government cultural funders, SODEC and Telefilm Canada as a result of disagreements with Losique in 2004, after Losique refused to cooperate with a review by those agencies of Canada's major film festivals. 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.

Despite the competing festival and the loss of government funding, however, Losique continued to organize the World Film Festival, and filed lawsuits against both Telefilm and Spectra, further suing Moritz de Hadeln personally after he was announced as FIFM's artistic director. as of July 2007, Losique's lawsuits were dropped, paving the way for a restoration of government funding.

In 2005, Losique first announced and later withdrew the film Karla from the festival 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.

In 2015 a group of employees claimed they were not paid. In 2016 many of the employees resigned, citing poor leadership and financial uncertainty amongst other issues. In an interview with CTV News, Montreal Gazette entertainment columnist Bill Brownstein referred to Losique as having a "Napoleonic complex" and not "playing well with the other children" resulting in government and sponsors withdrawing their funding support.

In the same year Cineplex Entertainment withdrew its support from the festival, causing it to lose the Forum Theatre as a venue. Left with only the Imperial Cinema for a venue, the festival had to cancel some of its planned screenings and proceed with a reduced lineup, although several of the city's independent theatres stepped in to help screen films at the last minute.

In 2017, power was cut at the Imperial Theatre in July, just a few weeks before the festival, due to unpaid electricity bills, with that year's festival being saved by a last-minute intervention by Pierre-Karl Péladeau and Québecor.

In 2018 the festival was accused by Revenu Québec of owing almost $500,000 in unpaid taxes, but the festival was allowed to proceed that year after Losique made an initial payment of $33,000.

By this time, Brendan Kelly of the Montreal Gazette was explicitly calling for the festival to be shut down, writing that "Way back in the early days of the festival in the late '70s and early '80s, the FFM was a happening event that could be said to be seriously rival the Toronto fest, then called the Festival of Festivals. But that hasn't been true for 30 years, and it's almost entirely Losique's fault. As long as the FFM exists, it drags down the city's film scene. Agencies and producers in other countries who don't realize Losique's fest is irrelevant send films and filmmakers, and the poor auteurs turn up to discover they're screening films in front of near-empty rooms. It also causes enormous problems for the other much more relevant film festivals in our city, notably the Festival du nouveau cinéma and Fantasia. These festivals have not been given the chance to step up and become the city's première festival with Losique's event staggering from edition to edition."

In 2019, the WFF announced that it was cancelling the 43rd edition of the event. however, with the COVID-19 pandemic emerging over the winter, the festival's return in 2020 was not possible, and the festival subsequently failed to see a revival in 2021. Robert Everett-Green of The Globe and Mail noted that while an event like TIFF, with its strong programming team, could easily work around the health difficulties of a single programmer, the stated reason for the MWFF's cancellation effectively confirmed the longstanding charges that Losique ran the festival as a personal fiefdom rather than cultivating a team.

In 2022, Losique announced plans to revive the festival as the Global Montreal Film Festival, with a 2022 edition featuring free screenings of a selection of films that had previously screened at FFM, leading to a full revival of the festival in 2023. The free screening series in 2022 attracted only a few dozen people; filmmaker André Forcier, whose 1994 film The Wind from Wyoming (Le Vent du Wyoming) was one of the titles being screened, criticized the event as having been poorly advertised. The 2023 revival did not materialize, and there has been no subsequent news about the festival's return.

Festival

The festival was organised in various sections, including the World Competition (features and shorts) and First Films World Competition (features), and non-competitive streams for Canadian and world cinema, documentaries, student films and repertory programming of classic films.

Prior to the beginning of each event, the festival's board of directors appointed the juries who held sole responsibility for choosing award winners. Juried awards were presented for the Grand Prix des Amériques, a Special Grand Prix of the jury, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Screenplay, Best Artistic Contribution, Best Short Film, an Innovation Award and gold, silver and bronze Zenith Awards for first films. Audience-voted awards were also presented for the most popular film, the most popular Canadian film, most popular Latin American film, most popular documentary film, and most popular Canadian short film.

Grand Prix des Amériques

Golden Zenith Award

Best Canadian Film

The Best Canadian Film award varied over its lifetime, sometimes being presented based on adjudication by a jury and other times as an audience-voted "people's choice" award.

References

References

1. [https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/montreal-world-film-festival-cancelled-1.5220188 "Montreal World Film Festival abruptly cancelled weeks before opening"]. [[CBC News]] Montreal, July 22, 2019.
2. "Stars come out for Montreal Film Festival". [[Canadian Press]], August 21, 1966.
3. [[Matthew Hays]] and Martin Siberok, [https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/cinema-has-been-abused-horrifically/article25470629/ "Cinema has been 'abused horrifically'"]. {{webarchive. link. (2017-01-13 ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', September 04, 2000.)
4. "TIFF-MWFF Filmfest fisticuffs, Montreal against Toronto". nationalpost.com.
5. Brendan Kelly, "Too many films, too few enticements for the under-40s; World film fest badly needs a sharper focus and a way to attract the Fantasia crowd". ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'', August 18, 2008.
6. [[Bill Marshall (producer). Bill Marshall]], "How the fest was won: TIFF founders lied and bluffed to outduel Montreal in 1976". ''[[National Post]]'', September 7, 2001.
7. Louis Marcorelles, "Deux semaines de films à Montréal". ''[[Le Monde]]'', August 30, 1977.
8. "World film festival planned". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', February 15, 1978.
9. [[Jay Scott]], "Festival claims Losique refused to forward films". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', February 14, 1978.
10. [[Dane Lanken]], "Montreal's no-star festival lets the films speak for themselves". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', August 25, 1980.
11. Alastair Sutherland, "World-beat screenings". ''[[Maclean's]]'', September 2, 1996.
12. "Montreal, Toronto fests: Vive la difference". ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'', September 10, 1985.
13. [[Jay Scott]], "Award-winning filmmakers are unknown no longer". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', September 18, 1989.
14. "Montreal, Toronto fests: Vive la difference". ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'', September 10, 1985.
15. Bruce Bailey, "A tale of two movie festivals". ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'', September 14, 1985.
16. Alex Patterson, "Festival fails to excite". ''[[Calgary Herald]]'', August 31, 1991.
17. John Griffin, "Is this Montreal's real film festival? 20-year-old New Cinema event now rivals Losique's big show". ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'', October 12, 1991.
18. [[Sid Adilman]], "Montreal papers slam film festival, founder". ''[[Toronto Star]]'', August 29, 1991.
19. Martin Knelman, "Festivals get starstruck: cineastes traditionally shun Hollywood stars. But the almighty dollar is changing all that". ''[[Financial Post]]'', September 5, 1998.
20. [[Matthew Hays]], "'The World Film Fest has managed to alienate far too much of the local film community'". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', August 15, 2000.
21. [[Matthew Hays]], "He's got the whole World in his hands". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', August 26, 2004.
22. Brendan Kelly, "Battle royale". ''[[Variety (magazine). Variety]]'', August 29, 2005.
23. Nelson Wyatt, "Montreal film festival marks 29th year with less money, more competition". [[Canadian Press]], August 30, 2005.
24. The 2005 FIFM was not successful, and the event was discontinued;Guy Dixon, "New Montreal Film Festival fizzles into oblivion". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', February 14, 2006.
25. Brendan Kelly, "Losique is still hoping, and asking, for more, but coffers are fuller than in past". ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'', August 23, 2007.
26. (January 10, 2006). "Canadian distributors to release Homolka film". CBC News.
27. "Employees at Serge Losique's World Film Festival complain of non-payment - CBC News".
28. "Montreal film festival employees resign en masse - CBC News".
29. "End of the World Film Fest?".
30. T'Cha Dunlevy, "Forum out of picture for FFM; Screenings at Imperial Cinema going ahead as scheduled". ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'', August 25, 2016.
31. T'Cha Dunlevy, "Ending On A Cliffhanger; The Festival des films du monde's chaotic 40th edition is over. Now what?". ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'', September 6, 2016.
32. T'Cha Dunlevy, "Serge Losique won't pull plug on Festival des films du monde; Director unfazed by money issues". ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'', July 26, 2017.
33. T'Cha Dunlevy, "Festival des films du monde is back for more". ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'', August 24, 2017.
34. "Quebec Revenue Department targets Montreal World Film Festival for unpaid taxes". [[Canadian Press]], July 12, 2018.
35. "Montreal World Film Festival to go on as planned after founder pays back taxes". [[Canadian Press]], August 1, 2018.
36. Brendan Kelly, "Bring down the curtain on Serge Losique's film festival". ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'', July 17, 2018.
37. The stated reason was that Losique was suffering from extreme fatigue, with the festival intended at that time to return in 2020;"Montreal World Film Festival to take break for 2019, promises return in 2020". [[Canadian Press]], July 22, 2019.
38. Robert Everett-Green, "Is Montreal's World Film Festival finished or just in remission?: The cancellation of the 43rd edition of the embattled event reveals that it truly is Serge Losique's one-man show". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', July 29, 2019.
39. T'Cha Dunlevy, [https://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/movies/montreals-beleaguered-festival-des-films-du-monde-is-back-kind-of "Montreal's beleaguered Festival des films du monde is back, kind of"]. ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'', August 24, 2022.
40. Olivier Du Ruisseau, [https://www.ledevoir.com/culture/cinema/750240/cinema-l-hommage-au-ffm-tient-le-coup? "L’hommage au FFM tient le coup"]. ''[[Le Devoir]]'', August 29, 2022.
41. Sandra Peredo, [https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1978/10/2/you-cant-take-the-pulpit-out-of-the-boy "You can’t take the pulpit out of the boy"]. ''[[Maclean's]]'', October 2, 1978.
42. "1+1 = 3 remporte la palme". ''[[Le Devoir]]'', September 10, 1979.
43. Pascal Mallet, "Un Festival sous le signe de l'austérité". ''[[Le Quotidien (Saguenay). Le Quotidien]]'', September 2, 1980.
44. Marc Morin, "Le grand prix au film américain 'The Chosen'". ''[[Le Nouvelliste (Quebec). Le Nouvelliste]]'', September 1, 1981.
45. "La G.-B. et l’Argentine décrochent les honneurs". ''[[Le Droit]]'', August 30, 1982.
46. Ina Warren, "The Go Masters wins festival's Grand Prize". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', August 29, 1983.
47. Ina Warren, "El Norte best film in Montreal festival: Acting awards raise eyebrows". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', August 28, 1984.
48. Bruce Bailey, "Grand prize goes to Spanish movie; Canadians shine in Official Competition". ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'', September 3, 1985.
49. "Film festival sets record, troubled Musicfest ends with soul". ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'', September 2, 1986.
50. Ina Warren, "Canada wins top prize with courageous film". ''[[Ottawa Citizen]]'', September 2, 1987.
51. Bill Brownstein, "Film-fest sells record 275,000 tickets". ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'', September 6, 1988.
52. "Drama about Soviet youth prisons wins top prize"]. ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'', September 5, 1989.
53. Stephen Godfrey, "Fallen from Heaven tops festival: Peru-Spain co-production named best film in Montreal". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', September 4, 1990.
54. "k.d. lang film wins top honors". ''[[Edmonton Journal]]'', September 3, 1991.
55. "Romance between poet, prostitute captures Montreal film festival prize". ''[[Waterloo Region Record]]'', September 8, 1992.
56. Conway Daly, "Romanian-French film wins top prize; Festival jury praises director Radu Mihaileanu for `searingly honest portrait'". ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'', September 7, 1993.
57. John Griffin, "New Zealand entry tops at our 18th film festival". ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'', September 6, 1994.
58. Jocelyne Richer, "Le FFM se termine avec le couronnement de « Georgia »". ''[[Le Soleil (Quebec). Le Soleil]]'', September 5, 1995.
59. "British film a surprise winner at Montreal festival". ''[[Vancouver Sun]]'', September 4, 1996.
60. John Griffin, "Iranian movie takes top honours at film festival: Children of Heaven wins jury prize and public vote". ''[[Ottawa Citizen]]'', September 3, 1997.
61. "Quebec director steals show". ''[[Kingston Whig-Standard]]'', September 9, 1998.
62. "Montreal filmfest closes with awards". ''[[The Daily Gleaner]]'', September 7, 1999.
63. "Australian, French films share top prize at Montreal film festival [Innocence, Le Gout des Autres]". [[Canadian Press]], September 4, 2000.
64. [[Matthew Hays]], "Hungary, Iran share award for best movie". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', September 4, 2001.
65. "Montreal Film Fest wraps up 26th year with three awards for The Last Train". [[Canadian Press]], September 3, 2002.
66. Odile Tremblay, [https://www.ledevoir.com/culture/cinema/35632/ffm-le-grand-prix-des-ameriques-au-cordon-de-markovic? "FFM - Le Grand Prix des Amériques au Cordon de Markovic"]. ''[[Le Devoir]]'', September 8, 2003.
67. "The Syrian Bride, a movie by Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis, took four prizes Monday at the Montreal World Film Festival, including the prestigious Grand Prix of the Americas". [[Canadian Press]], September 6, 2004.
68. "Kamataki big winner at Montreal film festival wrap, 2006 dates announced". [[Canadian Press]], September 6, 2005.
69. "Montreal film fest wraps up". ''[[The Daily Gleaner]]'', September 6, 2006.
70. Marc-André Lussier, "Les deux favoris sacrés ex aequo". ''[[La Presse (Canadian newspaper). La Presse]]'', September 4, 2007.
71. "Montreal film fest gives top honour to Okuribito". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', September 3, 2018.
72. John Griffin, "Korkoro wins big as festival closes; Tony Gatlif's feature about Roma fleeing the Nazis captures the Montreal World Film Festival's Grand prix des Amriques and an Ecumenical prize, and is voted best film by the public". ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'', September 8, 2009.
73. Marc Cassivi, "Le Grand Prix des Amériques à « Adem »"]. ''[[La Presse (Canadian newspaper). La Presse]]'', September 7, 2010.
74. "Hasta La Vista primé". ''[[La Voix de l'Est (Granby). La Voix de l'Est]]'', August 29, 2011.
75. André Duchesne, "L'autre maison remporte deux prix". ''[[La Press (Canadian newspaper). La Presse]]'', September 3, 2013.
76. [https://www.lapresse.ca/cinema/festivals-de-cinema/festival-des-films-du-monde/201409/01/01-4796257-ffm-le-film-la-parfaite-obeissance-se-distingue.php "FFM: le film La parfaite obéissance se distingue"]. ''[[La Presse (Canadian newspaper). La Presse]]'', September 1, 2014.