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Elisha Cuthbert may strut down on the New Montreal Filmfest.
September 15th, 2005
New Montreal FilmFest
Sloppy seconds, second best or best yet?
Montreal may not be awash in the glow of Tinseltown stars and red carpet pomp, but no one could say that the city hasn't got its own share of cinefest brouhaha. As Toronto's demurely titled Festival of Festivals stumbles to a standstill, Montreal's newest film fiesta, the New Montreal FilmFest or Festival international de films de Montréal (FIFM), sprints out of the starting gate.
Of course, the upstart New Montreal FilmFest isn't an entirely unseasoned contender in the fight for city dominance. Equipe Spectra, the cats behind the Jazz Fest and Francofolies, are behind this newbie event and they've secured some heavy hitters to help them put this one on the map. Moritz de Hadeln, one-time program director of the Vienna Film Festival, is manning the PD post at the FilmFest, and big money sponsors Toyota and Vidéotron are underwriting the event.
Still, the FilmFest has big claims to live up to and there is a great danger the festival will spread too thin. On the one hand it is competing with the long-established World Film Festival (little competition, some might say), and on the other the glamorous perception of the Festivals of Festivals. And let's not forget that the upcoming Festival du nouveau cinema (FNC) has some fair claims at being the real rival cinefest in this town.
The FilmFest has years before it can hope to be anything like the circus that is the Festival of
Festivals, and for now it's going to be a struggle to pick up the really plum premieres (both Cronenberg's History of Violence and Egoyan's Where the Truth Lies have already screened in Toronto). But there are plenty of films to go around, some of them even good, so we shouldn't despair yet. After all, more film is never a bad thing, and who knows, with a lot of hard work, Elisha Cuthbert might be strutting down a FilmFest carpet any year now.
Source : Hour.ca
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