Montreal World Film Festival's blog


Th festival runs August 27th till September 7th, 2009
Watch for the dailies.
Meanwhile you can watch the photo gallery of the 2008 Edition

 


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Japanese Film Wins Top Prize In Montreal

Monday, September 1-------After a 10 day marathon of world cinema, the Montreal World Film Festival concluded this evening with its gala Awards Ceremony and a screening of the French/Swiss/Belgian film Home, starring Isabelle Huppert. While French-language films are de rigeur in this French speaking city, the Festival’s highest honor went to a Japanese film. The Grand Prix des Ameriques, announced from the stage of the Theater Maisonneuve by Jury President (and Oscar nominated American directo...

Film Starring Isabelle Huppert To Close Montreal World Film Festival

Monday, September 1--------The Montreal World Film Festival closes this evening with the North American Premiere screening of Home, the newest film from French/Swiss director Ursula Meier. The film will screen at the Theatre Maisonneuve following the announcement of the juried awards. Home, which had its world premiere at the Cannes Critics Week, is a Franco-Swiss-Belgian co-production, starring Isabelle Huppert and Olivier Gourmet as a husband and wife whose family's peaceful existence in an...

Film In Focus: CHATURANGA

 Monday, September 1-------A new Indian film is making its World Premiere bow at the Montreal World Film Festival. Chaturanga is based on the novel by the Nobel Prize winning author Rabindranath Tagore, and is directed by Suman Mukhopadhyay, one of the most exciting and promising young filmmakers working in India. The film is the story of a love that is caught between conflicting worlds of ideas. The lead protagonist Sachish flees from radical positivism to religious mysticism in his quest f...

Japanese Classics And Contemporary Titles At Montreal

Sunday, August 31-------The Montreal World Film Festival is saluting the fine work done by the Kawakita Memorial Film Institute, a Japanese organization that promotes both classic and contemporary Japanese films, by showcasing three classic Japanese films here. The Film Institute was founded by Madame Kashiko Kawakita to promote Japanese cinema abroad. The Institute's mission in the past 35 years has been to collect and protect films and other items of film heritage and to make them available to...

Film In Focus: REZ BOMB

Saturday, August 30------The Montreal World Film Festival hosted the World Premiere last evening of Scottish filmmaker Steven Lewis Simpson’s latest film REZ BOMB. This marks the director's third feature in a row to World Premiere at the Festival, with previous showings of THE TICKING MAN (2003) and its sequel RETRIBUTION (2005).While his previous films were set in his native Scotland, REZ BOMB provides quite a contrast. The story is set on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota...

Isabelle Huppert Receives Montreal Film Festival Award

 Saturday, August 30------French actress Isabelle Huppert received a special Award yesterday by the Montreal World Film Festival for her unique contribution to French and world cinema. One of the great actresses of her generation, Huppert is also being honored with special screenings of several of her films, including the French films VIOLETTE NOZIERE, MADAME BOVARY and L'IVRESSE DU POUVOIR, all directed by her muse, iconic French film director Claude Chabrol and the Western epic HEAVEN'S GA...

Cinema Under The Stars At Montreal FF

 Friday, August 29-----One of the treats of the Montreal World Film Festival are the free outdoor screenings on the Place des Arts of classic and recent European, American and Canadian films. Every evening, Cinema Under The Stars is presenting films on a huge screen with enormous speakers that beckon people to what is literally a cinema street party.This year's selection of films includes: CHARIOTS OF FIRE(United Kingdom 1981), the Oscar winning true story of British track athletes competing ...

Canadian Student Award Winners Announced

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AWARDS OF THE 39th CANADIAN STUDENT FILM FESTIVAL NORMAN MCLAREN AWARD offered by the National Film Board of Canada, a value of $2500 in technical services for the winner's next production. « This Little Piggy » by Sarah Quinn and Sébastien Rist (Concordia University) KODAK IMAGING AWARD For the Best New Canadian Student Director, presented by Kodak Canada Entertainment Imaging. The winner will receive a camera and $4200 of film « For Wendy » by Jacquelyn Mills (Concordia University) BEST A...

Spotlight On Bavarian Cinema At Montreal FF

 Wednesday, August 27------Bavaria has been a cinema stronghold in Germany for over 100 years. While many German film companies and filmmakers have migrated to Berlin in the last decade, Munich still remains the main hub for the German film industry. Directors like Doris Dorrie and Sonke Wortmann have been famous Bavarian film names for the last few decades. In recent years, Bavarian films have won innumberable prizes at home and abroad, including Oscars for Florian Gallenberger (Quero ser), Ca...

Montreal FF Welcomes Tony Curtis

Tuesday, August 25------Calling himself "one of the last of the Hollywood movie stars", the Montreal World Film Festival welcomed iconic actor Tony Curtis this past weekend. Entering the press conference in a wheel chair and looking a bit puffy, the 79 year old actor, once hailed as the most beautiful face in movies, was still remarkably spry and witty, with a voice that revealed his early roots as a street tough in New York City. Curtis was in Montreal to accept the Prix des Ameriques...

Film In Focus: Alice In The Land

 Monday, August 25-------In more ways than one, a film festival brings the world to your doorstep. That is certainly the case for a new film from Chile that is making its North American Premiere at the Festival. ALICE IN THE LAND (ALICIA EN EL PAIS), directed by Esteban Larrain, was recently awarded with the Special Prize of the Jury at the Locarno Film Festival, will be presented in  the Documentaries of the World section of the Montreal World Film Festival.ALICE IN THE LAND tells the impr...

Alan Ladd Jr. Honored At Montreal World FF

 by Sandy Mandelberger, Montreal Online Dailies EditorFriday, August 22-------Academy Award-winning producer Alan Ladd, Jr. was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Montreal Film Festival opening night ceremony last night. In addition to receiving the coveted prize from Festival Director Serge Losique, the Festival is screening four films associated with Ladd during his careers at 20th Century Fox and MGM/UA.  Ladd will present a special screening this evening of the Mel Brooks s...

Director Mark Rydell Is Montreal FF Jury President

 by Sandy Mandelberger, Montreal FF Dailies Editor Wednesday, August 20-------Mark Rydell, an Academy Award-nominated director, a classically trained actor, and an accomplished jazz pianist, will serve as the President of the Jury at the Montreal World Film Festival, which kicks off a twelve day marathon of international cinema this coming Thursday.Throughout his multi-hyphenated career, Rydell's films have received twenty-six Oscar nominations. Born in the Bronx, he studied jazz at the Jui...

French Film To Open 32nd Montreal World Film Festival

 by Sandy Mandelberger, Montreal FF Dailies Editor Monday, August 18------If there ever was a love affair between cities, the intimate relationship between Paris and Montreal would be a novel unto itself. Both cities are proud standard bearers for the French language and French culture, although the Montrealers have added a Quebec twist to the traditional patrimonie.The bonds are further evidenced by the announcement of the Opening Night Film for this year's Montreal World Film Festival. The 3...

Two Films Tie For The Grand Prix Des Ameriques

 Monday, September 3--------In an unprecedented move, the Competition Jury of the Montreal World Film Festival decided to split the Festival's highest honor, the Grand Prix Des Ameriques, a first in Festival history. The period drama UN SECRET by veteran French director Claude Miller, which had its world premiere at the event and closed the Festival's 31st edition this evening, shared the honor with BEN-X, a Belgian/Dutch co-production by first-time director Nic Balthazar. BEN-X, a highly imagi...

Claude Miller's UN SECRET Will Close Festival Tonight

 Monday, September 3--------The World Premiere of UN SECRET by veteran French filmmaker Claude Miller (GARDE A VUE, LA PETITE VOLEUSE) will screen this evening as the Closing Night Gala of the Montreal World Film Festival. The director will be in attendance. Cecile De France, Mathieu Almaric, Patrick Bruel, Julie Depardieu and Ludivine Sagnier star in this lavish period piece about remembrance and secrets in a French family. .UN SECRET, based on a best-selling autobiographical novel by Phill...
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