MWFF 2016: Photo Highlights

Montreal World Film Festival 2016
Photo Highlights

The Montreal World Film Festival 2016 held all its red carpet as well as the closing ceremony at the Cinema Imperial. Three great movie starts who attended the festival this year. They were the famous French star Isabelle Afjani, the Americal actor Willem Dafoe, and a very popular and also considered to be one of the most beautiful Chinese actresses, who is also a model and a singer Chrystal Liu Yifei.

Isabelle Adjani played a lead role in the MWFF 2016 film Calole Matthieu. Before the screening, she presented the film on-stage, to the audience on the Cinema Imperial's.

Isabelle Afjani with the MWFF President Serge Losique.
Red Carpet before Closing Ceremony, MWFF 2016, September 5, 2016.

Willem Defoe starred in the lead role of the film MY HINDU FRIEND, directed by Hector Babenco (Brazil). He won the Best Actor Prize at the MWFF 2016 for his performance in that film. Unfortunately, he was not present at the festival's Awards Ceremony to collect his prize in person.

Willem Dafoe with the MWFF President Serge Losique.
Red Carpet Before Closing ceremony,MWFF 2016, September 5, 2016.

Chinese actress Chrystal Liu Yifei starred in the film YE KONG QUE / THE NIGHT PEACOCK by director Dai Sijie that was presented at the MWFF 2016 and that won SPECIAL CHINESE FILM FESTIVAL 1st Prize of $60,000. 

Chrystal Liu Yifei with the MWFF President Serge Losique.
Red Carpet and before Closing Ceremony, MWFF 2016, September 5, 2016.

The President of the Montreal World Film Festival Serge Losique announced at the Closing Ceremony that the next edition of the 41st MWFF festival will be held on August 24 - September 4, 2017.

MWFF 2016: Awards

2016 MONTREAL WORLD FILM FESTIVAL AWARDS

Monday September 5, 2016

AWARDS OF THE 40th WORLD FILM FESTIVAL,  MONTREAL 2016

Jury

Pierre-Henri Deleau, film festival director, producer, France
Claude Gagnon, director, Canada
Goran Markovic, director, Serbia
Donald Ranvaud, producer, Italy / UK
Eliseo Subiela, director, Argentina

FEATURE FILMS

Grand Prize of the Americas (Best Film):
$100,000 - USTAV REPUBLIKE HRVATSKE / THE CONSTITUTION, director Rajko Grlic (Croatia, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Macedonia)

Special Grand Prix of the jury:
$50,000 - HAUS OHNE DACH / HOUSE WITHOUT ROOF, director Soleen Yusef (Germany, Kurdistan)

Best Director:
EVERYBODY HAPPY, director Nic Balthazar (Belgium, Netherlands)

Best Actress:
Hannah Hoekstra for the film DE HELLEVEEG / THE FURY, director André van Duren (Netherlands)

Best Actor:
Willem Dafoe for the film MY HINDU FRIEND, director Hector Babenco (Brazil)

Best Screenplay:
RÜZGARDA SALINA NILÜFER / SWAYING WATERLILY, director Seren Yüce (Turkey)

Best Artistic Contribution:
TATARA SAMURAI, director Yoshinari Nishikori (Japan)

Innovation Award:
EMBRASSE-MOI COMME TU M’AIMES, director André Forcier (Canada)

SHORT FILMS:

1st prize:

$5,000 - THE SESSION, director Morgane Becerril (USA, France, Italy)

Jury Award:
$5,000 - SILENCE, director Dejan Mrkic (Australia, Croatia, UK)

ZENITHS FOR THE BEST FIRST FICTION FEATURE FILMS 2016:

Members of the jury of the First Fiction Films:

Maurie Alioff, film critic, writer, Canada
Mariangiola Castrovilli, journaliste, Italy
Pierre-Henri Deleau, film festival director, producer, France

Golden Zenith for the Best First Fiction Feature film:
$50,000 - ATANYM KEREEZI / A FATHER’S WILL, directors Bakyt Mukul and Dastan Zhapar uulu (Kyrgyzstan)

Silver Zenith for the First Fiction Feature Film: 
$40,000 - EHO / ECHO, director Dren Zherka (Germany, Kosovo)

Bronze Zenith for the First Fiction Feature Film (ex-aequo): 
$10,000 - IF YOU WERE HERE, director Yu Lan (China)

$10,000 - DUE EURO L’ORA / TWO EUROS PER HOUR, director Andrea D’Ambrosio (Italy)

SPECIAL CHINESE FILM FESTIVAL

1st Prize:
$60,000 - YE KONG QUE / THE NIGHT PEACOCK, director Dai Sijie (China, France)

2nd Prize:
$30,000 - WHEN LARRY MET MARY, director Wen Zhang (China)

DOCUMENTARIES OF THE WORLD

Best Documentary Award:

$15,000 - KEN SAN by Yuichi Hibi (Japan)

$15,000 - ALBERT ET ALMA EN SEIZE TEMPS / ALBERT AND ALMA IN 16 STRINGS, director Philippe Frenette-Roy (Canada)

CANADIAN CINEMA

1st Prize:

$60,000 - EMBRASSE-MOI COMME TU M’AIMES, director André Forcier (Canada)

2nd Prize:

30,000$ - MÁS ALLÁ DE LO QUE QUEDA / BEYOND WHAT REMAINS, directors Peter Tharos and Bassel Martin (Canada)

GLAUBER ROCHA AWARD FOR THE BEST FILM FROM LATIN AMERICA:

MIGAS DE PAN / BREADCRUMBS, director Manane Rodríguez (Spain, Uruguay)

MWFF 2016: A Touch of Wind

A Touch of Wind - Прикосновение ветра

FIRST FILM COMPETITION

DIRECTOR: Olga Veremeeva, Elena Demidova

SCRIPT: Olga Veremeeva

Producer: Anastasiya Razlogova, Anjei Petras

Sound Director: Ilya Veremeev

Music: Anjei Petras

COUNTRY: Russia; 77 min.

LANGUAGE: Russian, English subtitles

Official Synopses:

"A documentary within a fiction story. An experiment. The shooting of the film takes place in Buryatia, the southeastern part of Russia that is considered the hub of Buddhism in Russia."

The film has a very original and unusual plot concept where reality and fiction intertwine. The invented story is conjoined with the film's documentary film matrix in such a way that it is hard to separate the two, they become a single whole.

The plot takes place in Buryatia, and autonomous region in Russia. If you search on Google Maps for Buryatia, you will see that it hugs the upper tip of the Lake Baikal in Siberia, and rans along almost all of the lake's south-east shore, coming to the stop at the border with Mongolia. It is an unknown region to most people.

So what part of the film is the fictional story and how does it glue together with the documentary part? The invented  story is about Yulia, an ageing actress from Moscow, who gets a role in the film to be shot in Buryatia. She profits from this situation to try to find and reconnect with her boyfriend from the long gone student years. She is a Russian and he is a Buryat, and what ties them together, unknown to him, is far more than the memories of their bygone love...

Coming to Buryatia, Yulia reconnects to her past and also to her own spirituality when she meets Eduard. This is when the documentary part begins as Eduard starts to introduce first Yulia and then to the entire film's crew the sacred spiritual places of Buryatia, the colourful Buddhists temples, a traditional skills and competition festival, as well as the natural vistas of the land. The spectators share this journey with the actress and the film crew, and get to discover an amazing region of the world that most did not know existed. This journey brings Yulia to some personal soul searching, a realization how untruthful she was in her life, and a personal cleansing, release of her past.

 It is also noteworthy how the film incorporates into its plot the real auditions for the principle female role, and how this ties together with the documentary matrix of the film. Although the questions the prospective actresses were had been compiled before the interviews, and the women were told they would be filmed during their auditions, their answers and reactions are real and unpremeditated. Also, both Anya's Eduard's names are their real-life names. And Eduard is an opera singer, the same as his character in the him.

Several members of the crew were present at the Montreal World Film Festival screening. They presented their film on the stage before the projection and answered questions from the audience afterwords. Photos below show the film crew before the projection of the film. On the left are the film director and script writer Olga Veremeeva with her husband Ilya Veremeev who is the film's Sound Director and their daughter in the pram. On the right they are joined on the stage by the Film Producer Anastasiya Razlogova and the Music writer and compiler Andjei Petras.

MWFF 2016: Tiger Theory

TIGER THEORY/TEORIE TYGRA

WORLD COMPETITION

DIRECTOR: Radek Bajgar

PRODUCER:Petr Erben

SCRIPT: Radek Bajgar, Mirka Zlatnikova

MUSIC: Jiri Hajek

COUNTRY: Czech Republic; 102 min.
LANGUAGE: Czech, English subtitles

Official Synopses:

"Can a timid and domesticated bunny morph into a feral tiger? Henpecked veterinarian Jan sets off on a journey to reclaim his freedom and answer the question."

Tiger Theory is an exceptionally funny and entertaining film. During my years of covering the Montreal World Film Festival, I never heard so much laughter from the audience, the constant bursts of hilarious laughter, as during the projection of this film last night. Yet this was not a mindless laughter. Paradoxically, I could even refer to this film as a comic "tragedy", as it touches on core issues of family relationships, marriage ties, and the commitment constrains people face, or rather, that wives impose upon their husbands. The last night's laughter from the audience was rooted in peoples' recognition of those issues in their personal lives, and represented a kind of a personal catharses for them, an emotional release of old stuck family issues they had held inside for a long time. 

The film is about a man's need for his personal space within a committed relationship, his "liberty", so he can reconnect to himself, to the core of his being, to who he truly is. The next film, the director told the audience after the projection of the film, will be about how to "liberate" a woman, the space a woman needs within the relationship to be a more complete and stronger human being. I am certain that everybody at the film's screening last night will be eagerly awaiting the release of that next film! 

Tiger Theory is a very clever and sharply intelligent film which deals with serious life situations and issues with the specific Czech sense of humour that the majority of people will relate to and will find not only entertaining and funny but also deeply meaningful. I highly recommend this film.

FILM TRAILER

MWFF 2016: Tatara Samurai Reception

Tatara Samurai Special Event

August 29, 2016

The Executive Produce of the Japanese film Tatara Samurai EXALE HIRO and the LDH Inc. agency participated in the Montreal World Film Festival presentation of the film. There was a pre-screening of the film photo session at the Imperial Theatre with the film's director Yoshinari Nishikori and the two actors Sho Aoyagi and Naoki Kobayashi, and the onstage film presentation and discussion before and after the screening of the film.

After the screening, a special reception was organized by the film's Producer where the production team celebrated and interacted with those present. The two actors were exceptionally friendly and ready to answer any questions and listen to the comments, as well as to grant all the picture taking requests. It was a great evening!

You can read more about the Tatara Samurai  film here. The film won the Best Artistic Contribution prize at the Montreal World Film Festival 2016.

MWFF 2016: Tatara Samurai

TATARA SAMURAI

WORLD COMPETITION

DIRECTOR: Yoshinari Nishikori

SCRIPT: Yoshinari Nishikori

LEAD ACTOR: Sho Aoyagi

COUNTRY: Japon; 135 min.
LANGUAGE: Japanese, English subtitles

Official Synopses:

"When the Amago samurai withdraw their protection of the village of Tatara, famous for their manufacture of the legendary swords, the younger generation - erroneously - believe that guns will suffice."

The film's story line is set in the 16 century, during the Japan's Age of Wars, a time of social upheaval and constant military conflict. The guns are introduced to Japan, and the era of the Lord Oda's supremacy comes to the end. The Samirai lords begin to covet the guns and battle over the numbers of guns they posses.

There is a small village in the mountains making steel from ancient times. Their steel is made by Tatara-buki, a secret ancient method known as supreme steel. Tatara does not rust for a thousand years. Since the best Japanese swards cannot be made without Tatara steel, everybody, not only swordsmiths, but also traders associated with Samurais, strive to get this steel. With the introduction of the guns, the traders further attempt to usurp the steel production into their hands.

Gosuke, the leading character in the film, is the eldest son of the Murage Family, the only person in the village to inherit the Tatara steel making production. He has the obligation to guard the Tatara-buki steel making method inherited from his ancestors. In order to guard the village, he concentrates on martial arts training. He also decides to become a samurai to advance his fighting and defence skills, but gets disillusioned when he sees the power of the guns. The young village men then decide to protect their village with the guns, which leads to tragic results.

The film has a complex story line which weaves through the Japanese realities and shows the horrors and devastation caused by the embattling social strata. The film's director, who is also its script writer, stated that he drew a parallel in this film between the old era fighting to control the steel production and the issues behind the global oil demand in our days. The fighting will never solve the problems we face today. The peace has to be achieved without drawing out the sword.

The film shows beautiful and very peaceful Japanese sceneries which contrast with the aggression of the warring men. The cast is superb, and the film touches on some core issues of our collective existence.

This film won the Best Artistic Contribution prize at the Montreal World Film Festival 2016.

MWFF 2016: Contribution

CONTRIBUTION

WORLD COMPETITION

DIRECTOR: Sergey Snezhkin
COUNTRY: Russia; 100 min
LANGUAGE: Russian, English subtitles

Loosely based on the story by Leonid Yuzefovich "Contribution".


Official Synopses:

"In Siberia, in 1918, an investigator of the Red Army sentenced to death must find a precious diamond that has mysteriously disappeared for a chance to be pardoned by the White Army."

This is a suspense film set in a historical period of the Russian Revolution and the ensuing Civil War. It takes place in 1918 in the city of Perm as it had just been captured from the Reds by the Central Siberian White Guard Corps under the command of a young General Anatoly Pepelyaev. His army is exhausted, it has no supplies, ammunition, uniforms, or food. To resolve the problem, the General invites the Perm merchants to ask them for the money for his army. Each is ordered to provide a specific sum in gold, refereed to (in a psychological twist of the meaning) as a contribution rather than an expropriation.

A rich widow Chagin brings her "contribution", an expensive 140 carats diamond. The next day, the diamond mysteriously disappears. In order to solve this mystery, the Red Army investigator Andrei Murzin, condemned to death by a firing squad, is asked to find the precious stone by a certain hour in exchange for a pardon. 

The film's suspense line, and the type of an arrangement where all the suspects are kept together at the same location for questioning, resemble Agatha Crystie stories, this likeness further intensified by the lavish palace-like setting and some similar period costumes. But then the similarities part. This film's plot also shows some horrors and excesses of the Russian Civil war and the senseless ideas-based imprisonment and executions.

The filmography uses brownish, at times black and white tones, especially at the beginning of the film, as to resemble old, faded photographs. This also helps to create the sense of the historical past, and a certain mood of the old-era memory reflections. The plot has a few intriguing twists and a keen sense of suspense that many spectators will find compelling to watch.

MWFF 2016: The Bear Skin

THE BEAR SKIN / LA PELLE DELL’ORSO
WORLD COMPETITION

DIRECTOR: Marco Segato
COUNTRY: Italy; 86 min.
LANGUAGE: Italian with French subtitles

Based on the book by Matteo Righetto  La pelle dell'orso.


Official Synopses:

"In a village in the Dolomites, a father and his young son have become near strangers, seldom talking to each other. It takes an excursion into the woods to hunt a bear, that erodes the wall of silence."

The spectacular landscape of the Italian Dolomite mountains makes a breathtaking backdrop in this film. The spirit of the mountains, their raggedness, power, and danger outline the main characters of this film and the drama they go through.

The main plot centres on the relationship between a father, who lives in a mountainous village, and his son Domenico, in his early teens. Their relationship is defined by the past and the present. Past circumstances led to Domenico's mother death when he was still a small child, and in the present, there is father's alcohol addiction and tensions between him and other villagers. The father-son relationship is silent, abrupt and cold on the father's side. And though Domenico faces the absence both of his mother and of father's love, the spectators are shown small but revealing of his concern and carrying for his rejecting father. 

One day, a bear known as "The Devil - El Diàol”, named so for the gigantic size, ferocity and aggression, attacks Domenico's uncle barn and kills a cow. Another villager looses a goat. This is when Domenico's father shows his true character, rises to the challenge, and states he will kill the bear. A bet is made, and a local entrepreneur promises a large sum of money if he brings him back the bear's skin.  

For Domenico's father, it is a way to gain the villagers' respect. For Domenico's uncle who hands Domenico a hunting rifle without attempting to dissuade his underage nephew from going alone into the ragged mountains, this represents a bigger assurance to get the promised replacement cow if the bet is won. The only person who acts from pure love for his father without any ulterior motives is Domenico.

This trip becomes for Domenico the rights of passage to become a man. This ritual, common to the indigenous people and those who live close to earth, is completely forgotten in the civilized world of the city dwellers. Yet Domenico's father understands this instinctively, and this is why he does sent his son back to the village when they finally meet.

This is a very powerful film, touching on the depths of the human nature. The mountain shots are spectacular, and the scenes are choreographed visually and played by the actors with the most of skill.
  

MWFF 2016: Jury

Montreal World Film Festival
40th Edition
August 25 - Septemeber 5, 2016

JURY

Members of two MWFFJury teams were revealed to the public today.

WORLD COMPETITION JURY

SERGEI BODROV

Born in Khabarovsk, Russia in 1948, Sergei Bodrov studied screenwriting before becoming a journalist. His work for the satirical magazine, Crocodile, won him numerous literary prizes. After a lengthy career as a screenwriter, he made his directorial debut in 1985 with Sweet Dreams in the Grass, which won a silver prize at the Moscow Festival. He has since directed I Hate You (1986), Non-Professionals (1987), Freedom is Paradise (Grand Prize of the Americas at the 1989 MWFF), The Gambler (1990), The Man in Red Square (1991), I Wanted to See Angels (1992), White King, Red Queen (1992), Prisoners of the Mountains (1996), which was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, Nomad (2004), Mongol (2007), also nominated for an Oscar. His last film, The Seventh Son, with Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore and Alicia Vikander,  was released in 2015. He is currently working on projects in Germany and China.

CLAUDE GAGNON

 Born in Sainte-Hyacinthe, Quebec, in 1949, Claude Gagnon spent a decade in Japan in the 1970s. With his first feature, Keiko (1978), he became the first and only foreigner to receive the Japanese Film Directors' Association best film award. Returning to Canada in the 1980s, Gagnon and his wife Yuri Yoshimura founded their own company, Aska Film. With The Kid Brother (1986), he won the MWFF's Grand Prize of the Americas as well as prizes at Berlin and other international festivals. Among his other films: Larose ,Pierrot et la Luce (1981), Pale Face (1985, winner of the FIPRESCI prize at the MWFF), The Pianist (1991), Pour l’amour de Thomas (1994), Revival Blues (2003),Kamataki (2005), winner of five prizes at the MWFF, and Karakara (2012), shown at the 36th MWFF and winner of the Prix de la Cinémathèque québécoise as  audience favourite and honoured for its window to the world.

 GORAN MARKOVIC

Belgrade-born Goran Marcovic studied film directing in Prague at FAMU and then started working for television, directing documentaries and over fifty TV movies. His first theatrical feature was the critically acclaimed and financially successful Special Education (1976). Most of his following features have been screened in various Yugoslavian and international festivals. One of the best known of the “Czech School” of Yugoslav directors, he has been teaching in the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade since 1979. Besides making movies, Markovic staged two plays and wrote three more and he also directs for the theatre. His films have screened in festivals around the world and won numerous prizes. Selected filmography: Special Education (1976), National Class (1978), Jack of All Trades (1980), Variola Vera(1981), Taiwan Canasta (1985), Déjà Vu (1987), Meeting Point (1989), Tito and Me (1992), Burlesque Tragedy (1995), Serbia Year Zero (2001), The Cordon (2003), winner of MWFF’s Grand Prize, andFalsifier (2013).

Donald Ranvaud

Anglo-Italian with a French name and a marked tendency toward the Brazilian, Donald Ranvaud taught at universities ofWarwickand East Anglia, where he became chairman of the film department. He founded the independent film magazine Frameworkin 1975, which he edited until 1988 and freelanced for MFB, Sight and Sound, The Guardian, La Repubblica, Les Cahiers du Cinéma,American Film as well published books on Italian cinema. During this period he directed documentary items for Channel Four and RAI Uno, including portraits of Paul Schrader, Raul Ruiz, Cui Jian, Laurie Anderson and David Mamet as well as co-directed a feature, Visioni Private. In 1989 he helped start the European SCRIPTFund. Since then he embarked on production full time, with directors and in countries before they become fashionable, particularly China: 1989-1993(especially Life on a Stringand including Farewell my Concubine); and Latin America, 1994 - today(Central do Brasil, Familia Rodante, Xango, Lavoura Arcaica, Babilonia 2000, Madame Sata, Cidade de Deus, nominated for four Oscars in 2004). Most recently he was executive producer on The Constant Gardener by Fernando Meirelles.

ELISEO SUBIELA

Born in Buenos Aires in 1944, Eliseo Subiela graduated in philosophy and literature and studied film at La Plata. He made his first short in 1963, Un largo silencio, apprenticed with several established Argentinian directors and worked for many years in commercials before making his debut in features with La conquista del Paradiso (1981). His 1986 feature, Man Facing Southeast brought him to international attention and he followed that with Last Images of the Shipwreck (1989), which won best script at the MWFF,  and The Dark Side of the Heart  (1992, Grand Prize of the Americas at the MWFF). Among his other films: Don’t Die Without Telling Me Where You’re Going (1995, People’s Choice at the MWFF), Wake Up Love (1996), Little Miracles (1997), The Adventures of God (2000),The Dark Side of the Heart 2 (2001), Lifting de corazon (2005), El Resultado del amor (2007). He is was named Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in 1990.

LEE TAMAHORI

Born to a Maori father and a European mother, Lee Tamahori began his career as a commercial artist and photographer, then joined the New Zealand film industry in the late 1970s as a boom operator. Tamahori had directed a number of shorter dramas for television before he made his feature film debut in 1994 with Once Were Warriors, a gritty depiction of a violent Maori family. The film had had problems finding funding, but it won the Grand Prize of the Americas at the Montreal World Film Festival, went on to break box office records in New Zealand. Overseas it sold to many countries and won rave reviews. Tamahori moved to Hollywood and directed the period thriller Mulholland Falls(1996), followed by the successful wilderness film The Edge (1997), Along Came a Spider (2001) and the Bond thriller Die Another Day (2002). Among his subsequent films:  XXX: State of the Union  (2005) starring Ice Cube and Willem Dafoe, Next (2007) and The Devil's Double (2011). In 2015 Tamahori directed Mahana, his first feature made in New Zealand since Once Were Warriors.

JURY OF THE FIRST FEATURE PRIZE

MARIANGIOLA CASTROVILLI

 Mariangiola Castrovilli was born in Rome where she attended the International University of Journalism Pro Deo, now Luiss. She worked for RAI as a journalist and programmer- director, and for the newspaper Il Giornale, then contributed to leading European newspapers. A member of FIPRESCI, she served on numerous juries including  those at Karlovy Vary and San Sebastian. She is a member of the National Union of Italian Film Journalists, which each year awards the Nastri D'Argento, the Italian equivalent of the Oscar. In the 1980s she was the first woman in the world to fly at twice the speed of sound for direct radio and television on the Aermacchi MB-339PAN and she did all the stunts of the Frecce Tricolori, the Italian Air Force aerobatic team. Auto legend Enzo Ferrari invited her to ride in his new Ferrari 40 and she reached 324 km/hr on the track in Maranello, always live on air. These exploits earned her the title: “The butterfly with iron wings”.

MAURIE ALIOFF

Montreal film critic Maurie Alioff writes about movies for publications off and online. He is also a screenwriter collaborating on a documentary featuring Bob Marley’s granddaughter that is now filming.  A longtime faculty member of the English Department at Vanier College, Alioff is researching and developing other Jamaica-related projects, including a magical-realist crime film drawing on stories he hears on the island. He has written for radio and television, programmed films for the Just for Laughs comedy festival, taught screenwriting, and been a contributing editor for various magazines. Alioff’s articles have appeared in POV Magazine, Canadian Cinematographer, Take One, Salon l.l,CTVM.Info, northernstars.ca, The New York Times, and many other publications.

Pierre-Henri Deleau

Pierre-Henri Deleau began his career as an assistant director to Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Pierre Kast and then as a director in educational television. He directed a short, Virginie ou la double rupture, in 1969.  He is the co-founder of the FILMOBLIC production house which produced or co-produced films by Hugo Santiago, Jean-Louis Comolli, Jean-François Dion, Claude Miller, Edouardo de Gregorio and Jean-Pierre Lefebvre. In 1969, he co-founded the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival and was its director for three decades. In 1996, he co-founded the Forum of European Cinema in Strasbourg, and in 1987 co-founded FIPA  and directed the event in Cannes, Nice and Biarritz until 2009. That year he became member of the selection committee for first works at the European Film Academy. As director of the Cinéma and Littérature collection of Les Éditions Jean-Claude Lattès, he has published books on Michelangelo Antonioni, Groucho Marx, Andrezj Zulawski and Yilmäz Güney, among others.

Visit the Montreal World Film Festival's website for more information, program and film scheduling.

Festival information courtesy of  MWFF.