MWFF 2011-2014 Photo Highlights

Montreal World Film Festival
Festival des Films du Monde de Montréal

Photo Highlights 2011-2014

This post shows a selection of my photos from the past 4 editions of the festival. It is to remind everybody of the excitement the festival generates. The MWFF offers a great variety of films to see, most of which are otherwise not screened in Montreal. So plan to attend the 39th Edition of the festival that starts in a few days on August 27, 2015.


MMFA 2014: 38th Edition

Closing Night

MMFA 2013: 37th Edition

Serge Losique

MMFA 2012: 36th Edition

Red Carpet Before the Opening Ceremony

Closing Night

MMFA 2011: 35th Edition
Catherine Deneuve

Awards Ceremony, Théâtre Maisonneuve, Place des Arts, August 28, 2011

Press Conference, August 27, 2011

Click on images to enlarge them.

All photos by Nadia Slejskova.

© 2015 Nadia Slejskova

You can also see archived photos of the past MMFF editions on their website here.

MWFF 2015: Montreal Film Festival

Montreal World Film Festival
39th Edition

27 August - 7 Septemeber, 2015

This year, the Montreal World Film Festival (MWFF) starts about a week later than in previous years. This offers an exceptional opportunity to all those who take late summer holidays not to miss this great film festival and to attend it, to watch many remarkable films from around the world. I was told by international directors who had films in competition at the MWFF in previous years, that MMFA is considered within the film industry to be an international festival that selects the films with the greatest consideration for the core human issues, while keeping a perspective on the most actual topics of the day. The selection of films will be so wide that it won't fail to address the different audience preferences, especially since films from 86 countries will be represented in this 2015 edition of the festival. All the previous festival editions were a great hit with the audience, many travelling to Montreal over large distances to participate in this unique annual event.

Also this year, Montreal World Film Festival (in French Festival des Films du Monde de Montréal) is honouring the 45^th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Canada and China. In order to showcase the Chinese burgeoning contemporary film production, the 2015 edition of the MWFF added a special section, Chinese Cinema, which includes a number of new Chinese feature films.

The festival will open with an Iranian epic film Muhammad, which is about the Islam's founding prophet. The story focuses on his early years, from birth to age 13. The film is 171 minute long, and it took five years to make it. Its budget was over $50 million. This is the most expansive film ever made in Iran. The director of the film Majid Majidi is a veteran of the MWFF. He won the MMFA Grand Prix des Amériques three times: for Children of Heaven (1997), The Color of Paradise (1999) and Baran (2001). The director will attend the FFM première with members of the film team.

This year the number of entries to the MWFF sections has overtaken those of previous years: over 2000 feature and short films (in equal proportion) were submitted and screened by the selection commitee.

A quote from Serge Losique, the MWFF's founder and director:

“The Festival is very proud to be able to host the premiere of this important work, a film of very high artistry aimed at a very wide audience... There have been many movies dealing with key figures of the world’s great religions, including Jesus, Moses and Buddha, but this is only the second epic screen treatment of Islam’s founder.”

The Montreal World Film Festival has just announced the line-up of its World Competition as well as First Feature Competition. 

  

World Competition

Grand Prize of the Americas

27 Feature films from 31 countries will compete in this category: 

2 Nights Till Morning by Mikko Kuparinen (Finland-Lithuania) 84 mins

A Havana Moment by Guillermo Ivàn Duenas (USA – Cuba - Mexico – Colombia) 95 mins

A Matter of Courage byRoberto Gervitz (Brazil – Uruguay) 90 mins

Chucks by Sabine Hiebler, Gerhard Ertl (Austria) 93 mins

Demimonde by Attila  Szàsz (Hungary) 88 mins

Gassoh by Tatsuo Kobayashi  (Japan) 87 mins

Getaway of Love by Tonino Zangardi (Italy) 90 mins

Grey and Black by Luís Filipe Rocha (Portugal – Brazil)

Happy 140 by Gracia Querejeta (Spain) 98 mins

John Hron by Jon Pettersson (Sweden) 127 mins

L’Accabadora by Enrico Pau (Italy – Ireland) 97 mins

Mad Love by Philippe Ramos (France) 96 mins

Memories of the Wind by Özcan Alper (Turkey - Germany - France – Georgia) 140 mins

My Enemies by Stéphane Géhami (Canada) 106 mins

On the Road to Berlin by Sergei Popov (Russia) 82 mins

Outliving Emily by Eric Weber (USA) 88 mins

Rider Jack by This Lüscher (Switzerland) 90 mins

Secret by Selim Evci (Turkey) 102 mins

Seven Days by Xing Jian (China) 73 mins

Summer Solstice by Michal Rogalski (Poland – Germany) 95 mins

Taboo by Khosro Masoumi (Iran) 108 mins

The Girl King by Mika Kaurismäki (Germany - Canada - Finland - Sweden) 102 mins
The Invisible Artery by Pere Vilà Barcelo (Spain) 119 mins

The Midnight Orchestra by Jérôme Cohen Olivar (Morocco) 114 mins

The Petrov File by Georgi Balabanov (Bulgaria – Germany) 90 mins

The Soul of a Spy by Vladimir Bortko (Russia) 110 mins

The Visitor by Mehmet Erylimaz (Turkey) 127 mins

   

First Feature Competition

Beijing Carmen by Wang Fan (China) 95 mins

Closer by Mostafa Ahmadi (Iran) 90 mins

Crushed by Megan Riakos (Australia) 111 mins

Das Deckelbad by Kuno Bont (Switzerland) 97 mins

Dear Deer by Takeo Kikuchi (Japan) 107 mins

Fire Birds by Amir Wolf (Israel) 105 mins

Kagurame byYassuo Okuaki (Japan) 112 mins

Legacy by Nemanja  Cipranic (Serbia – Montenegro) 90 mins

Live by Vlad Paunescu (Romania) 107 mins

Lost and found by Show Yanagisawa (Japan) 111 mins

Maresia by Marcos Guttmann (Brazil) 90 mins

Neboke by Norihito Iki (Japan) 115 mins

Our Everyday Life by Ines Tanovic(Bosnia-Hezegovine – Slovenia – Croatia)

Rainbow Without Colours by Tuyen Quang Nguyen (Vietnam) 93 mins

Rosa Chumbe by Jonatan Relayze Chiang (Peru) 75 mins

Orage by Fabrice Camoin (France) 80 mins

Stubborn Boy by Moritz Kramer (Germany) 82 mins

The Funeral by Qi Wang (China) 115 mins

The Plastic Cardboard Sonata by Enrico Falcone, Piero Persello (Italy) 80 mins

The Sum of Histories by Lukas Bossuyt (Belgium – Netherlands) 85 mins

The Thin Yellow Line by Celso Garcia (Mexique) 95 mins

Three Days in September by Darijan Pejovski (Macedonia – Kosovo) 90 mins

Under Heaven by Dalmira Tilepbergen (Khirgizistan) 88 mins

Vals by Anita Lakenberger (Austria) 120 mins

Members of both Juries were also made public today.

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

Festival information courtesy of  MWFF.

Jimmy's Hall

Jimmy's Hall
La salle de danse

Drama

England, Irland, France, 2015, 109 min.

Director: Ken Loach
Writers: Paul Laverty (screenplay), Donal O'Kelly (play)

Actors:  Barry ward, Francis Magee, Alleen Henry

Distribution:  Métropole Films Distribution

This film is based on a true story of Jimmy (James) Gralton, the only Irish citizen who was ever deported from Ireland in 1933 and was permanently banned from returning back to his country. He died in New York after the end of World War II, in December 1945. The film recounts events leading to his deportation.

The film shows the Ireland's political and social tensions, as well as the general moral and power issues in the late 20th early 30th of the last century. Jimmy returns from America and opens a Hall where people dance, learn Irish-Gaelic language, recite poetry and discuss various issues. Do come and see the film and decide for yourself whether his deportation was justified. The fim has a very touching and quite innocent love story. Whether true to life or invented, it plays a major part in the film.

The film is presently shown at the Montreal's Cinema Excentris. To find more about the scheduling, visit the cinema's website.

Jimmy's Hall Official Trailer 1 (2015) - Barry Ward, Simone Kirby Movie HD

Top photo courtesy of Cinema Excentris.
Film Review © 2015 Nadia Slejskova

Le Sel de la Terre - The Salt of the World

The Salt of the World
Le Sel de la Terre

Documentary
Brasil, Italy, France, 2015, 110 min.

Realisation: Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado
Distribution: Métropole Films Distribution

This is a remarkable film, a tribute to life and work of the Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado. The scope of the film is truly epic. It covers 40 years of the photographer's life and takes the spectators through all the major recent events in history, trough international conflicts, starvation, involuntary exodus-migrations and mass death. Salgado's photography reveals the extend of misery millions of people were made to suffer, most of it largely not in the vision-focus of the prosperous nations' populace. The film makes a statement that all the people, each individual person is the salt of the world of this Earth, each equally deserving life, respect, dignity and basic means and conditions for peaceful living.

Salvado's constant work on documenting extreme human suffering, of creating his visual stories of it, caused him to become ill in his body and spirit. He stopped taking pictures for quite a while. What helped him to come back to his art was changing his focus from portraying human misery to concentrating instead on the beauty and power of nature, its ability to regenerate itself, especially when helped by a carrying human hand which rebuilds what was previously destroyed. His latest photographic project is called Genesis. It documents those parts of the world which look like they did at the times of the biblical Genesis, with its pristine vistas, wild flora and fauna, and grandiose landscapes. 

Salvado's photographs are black and white. He works masterfully with many shades of greys to brings depth and expression to his images. His photographs are true works of art with many layers of meaning. I highly recommend everybody to see this film.

Film's trailer

The film is presently shown at the Montreal's Cinema Excentris. To find more about the scheduling, visit the cinema's website.

Film Review © 2015 Nadia Slejskova

Le bruit des arbres - The Sound of Trees

Le Bruit des Arbres
The Sound of Trees
Drama
Québec, 2015, 78 min.

Director: François Péloquin
Actors:  Roy Dupuis, Antoine L’Écuyer, Rémi Goulet
Distribution: K-Films Amérique

This Quebec film is presently in competition at the Karlovy Vary film festival in the Czech Republic. Its contemporary North American setting only intensifies the ages-long universal themes of a father-son relationship, and of a young man coming of age, as well as portraying the general existential dilemma. The conflicts presented are specific to this family and their way of life, but the turmoil the young man feels and the intensity of his feelings and reactions are clearly recognizable as an adolescent's angst, as is his solution out of it - to leave his parents home and to go into the "big" world. And although one might conclude that at the end the young man rejects his father's way of life, not wishing to continue in his footsteps, this might be a precipitated opinion. The son does not burn his bridges with is father just before leaving the town, but rather, with a grand gesture, rebuilds their relationship by placing it on a solid ground. Since he is only 17 years old, his life and experiences might still one day bring him right back to his native town, when the perspective of owning and running a family business and being one's own boss might be much better appreciated. At his present young and rebellious age, he simply is not able to work for his father.

The name of the film Le bruit des arbres, which literally translates as "The Noise of the Trees",  does not refer to the sounds the trees make when swayed by the winds, but rather to the noise produced when they are cut down and processed in the family lamber business. The father hears this noise, the son does not. His ears are plugged with earphones as he listens to a very loud music instead. The word "noise"  most likely also refers to all the external and internal "noise" one creates in one's life and in others who surround him.

The acting is superb. Both Roy Depuis as well as Antoine L’Écuyer who plays his son portray their characters exceptionally well. The scenery of the Gulf of St. Laurence river, where the town is located, is the perfect setting for this film.

The film is presently shown at the Montreal's Cinema Excentris. To find more about the scheduling, visit the cinema's website.

Film's trailer

Top photo courtesy of Cinema Excentris.
Film Review © 2015 Nadia Slejskova

FIFA 2015: AWARDS

The Awards of the 33rd FIFA

The international jury of the 33rd FIFA, presided by director Don Kent (Great Britain), rewarded thirteen films from nine countries. The jury was completed by producer and director Jennifer Alleyn (Canada), director and screenwriter Camille Guichard (France), Commissioning Editor at SRF Anita Hugi (Switzerland), as well as filmmaker and multimedia artist Raymond St-Jean (Canada).

Three Canadian works are among the award-winning films.

Awards – Prizewinners of the films in competition

Grand Prize:

BEFORE THE LAST CURTAIN FALLS
Thomas Wallner (Germany, Belgium)

Jury Award:
Ex æquo
CONCRETE LOVE
Maurizius Staerkle-Drux (Germany, Switzerland)
ART WAR
Marco Wilms (Germany)

Award for Best Educational Film:
THE SKIES OVER DRESDEN
Paul Cohen (The Netherlands)

Award for Creativity:
LA PART DE L’OMBRE
Olivier Smolders (Belgium, France)

Award for Best Canadian Film:
STRANGE AND FAMILIAR: HOME, HOPE AND ARCHITECTURE ON FOGO ISLAND
Marcia Connolly, Katherine Knight (Canada)

Award for Best Essay:
Sponsored by Le Devoir
LE RETOUR EST LE MOUVEMENT DU TAO : ZHU XIAO-MEI ET LES VARIATIONS GOLDBERG
Michel Mollard (France)

Award for Best Portrait:
I’M A CREATIVE ANIMAL
Barbara Seiler (Switzerland, Germany)

Award for Best Reportage:
BALLET BOYS
Kenneth Elvebakk (Norway)

Award for Best Film for Television:
Sponsored by Digital Cut
WRITE DOWN, I AM AN ARAB
Ibtisam Mara’Ana Menuhin (Israel, Palestine)

Liliane Stewart Award for Design Arts:
Sponsored by the MacDonald Stewart Foundation
NEON
Eric Bednarski (Poland) 

ICI ARTV Award for Best French Canadian Film:
UNE COURTE HISTOIRE DE LA FOLIE
Isabelle Hayeur (Canada)

ICI ARTV Springboard to the World Award:
BLACK AND TAN FANTASY / RÉPÉTITION
Mario Côté (Canada)