Montreal: Montreal World Film Festival president Serge Losique has named a Canadian film, the Robert Lepage feature No, and a Canadian coproduction, Claude Lelouch’s Hasards ou Coincidences, to bookend this year’s 22nd edition of the festival, running Aug. 27 to Sept. 7.

Based on the Lepage stage play Les Sept branches de la riviere Ota, No is the festival’s opening-night film, while Lelouch’s latest, shot in Mexico, Europe, the u.s. and Quebec last summer and coproduced with Montreal’s SDA Productions, is the festival closer.

No was produced by InExtemis Images’ Bruno Jobin and Lepage, with Anne-Marie Cadieux and Alexis Martin in the leading roles. The film is confirmed for a 10-screen theatrical release by distributor Alliance Vivafilm on Sept. 25.

Hasards ou Coincidences stars Alessandra Martines and will also be given a post-festival release by distributor Motion International. Dates remain uncertain, but the prolific French filmmaker apparently will attend.

In other news, Losique says nine new Japanese films will be showcased this year including Hideyuki Hirayama’s family drama Begging for Love in official competition, Palme d’Or winner Shohei Imamira’s Dr. Akagi in the Hors Concours section, and the world premiere of Hiroyuki Nakano’s historical Shogun drama, Samurai Fiction.

The festival program includes the North American premiere of Ingmar Bergman’s most recent film, In the Presence of a Clown. The screening is the centerpiece of a wff tribute to the prolific Swedish filmmaker, who turned 80 last month. Losique says one of the director’s leading ladies, Ingrid Thulin (Winter Light, Wild Strawberries), will attend the tribute.

Winner of three Academy Awards for best foreign-language film, Bergman has written and directed more than 40 films.

– Sci Squad – more FFC-friendly

Cinar Films and its u.s. partners have announced the start of production in Montreal and at various u.s. locations on Sci Squad, a new 13 half-hour, live-action youth science series. The innovative concept weaves comedy and drama with real people doing real science, says Cinar vp and producer Patricia Lavoie.

Sci Squad follows the adventures of Erica, Jake, Riley and Durnsford as they take on problems sent in from the field. The accent is on inquiry and solving science riddles such as ‘How can you win the local bike race with your old bike after your parents accidentally drove the car over your new racer?’ and ‘Where to reconstruct your dog house (and protect Fido) after the last one was singed to a crisp by a bolt of lightning?’

Cinar is producing in association with pbs affiliate KCTS Television, producers of the highly acclaimed Bill Nye the Science Guy, and Quest Productions of Berkeley, California. The series airs on tvontario and the Discovery Kids Block on Discovery Channel, starting in ’99

‘Sci Squad is a great fit for Discovery Kids,’ says Marjorie Kaplan, senior vp, children’s programming and products, Discovery Communications. ‘It’s got just the right mix of humor and character and content to entertain and engage our audience.’

The National Science Foundation in the u.s. has provided additional funding. Cinar (www.cinar.com) is Sci Squad’s international distributor.

– Tonic and The Red Violin

Francois Girard’s The Red Violin has its world premiere Sept. 3 as one of two opening night films (along with Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan) at the 55th Venice International Film Festival. Girard’s film opens the Notte et Stelle (under the stars) section at Venice and has its North American premiere as the opening-night film at the Toronto International Film Festival, Sept. 10.

At a recent press rally in Montreal, the filmmaker said he had hoped The Red Violin would compete in Venice, adding his first two choices for festival venues remain Toronto and Venice. Both festivals are credited with spirited launches for Girard’s Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould.

The multilingual, $14-million coproduction between Canada, the u.k. and Italy was shot in five countries and stars Samuel L. Jackson (The Negotiator), Greta Scacchi and Jean-Luc Bibeau.

Toronto’s Rhombus Media holds u.s. rights, Montreal’s Film Tonic has Quebec and Cineplex Odeon Films (Alliance) is the distributor in English Canada. New Line Cinema had first right of refusal for the u.s. and has international, except for the coproduction territories.

‘We’re looking at something around mid-November for a commercial release,’ says Film Tonic president Pierre Latour.

Girard’s film is the high point of a busy fall/winter slate for the veteran Montreal distrib, who has picked up 12 domestic and coproduction titles this year, along with five foreign features and a major tv series.

‘The market is tough, but we’ve always backed quality, independent pictures, both in French and English,’ says Latour, ‘even though we had to split the rights on The Red Violin because it’s a hefty minimum guarantee and the producer needed a lot more money.’

The film’s Canadian distribution guarantee is estimated to be in the order of $1 million. Radio-Canada, a longtime Girard supporter, has prelicensed the movie.

Tonic’s ’98 domestic and coproduced acquisitions include Eugene Garcia’s second feature Bone; the Jerry Ciccoritti romance comedy Boy Meets Girl, starring Joe Mantegna and set for an early ’99 release; and Thomas Romero’s Cinq Minutes de Detente, coproduced by Montreal’s Transfilm and starring Richard Bohringer.

Other new acquisitions include the Johanne Pregent teen drama L’Ile de Sable, a Productions Tele-Action feature currently shooting; Bernard-Henri Levy’s feature debut Le Jour et la Nuit, coproduced by Cinemaginaire; and two new Bachar Shbib features, The Kiss and Strawberries & Wine, a delightful story of a memorable family reunion currently in editing.

Also on deck are Jeanne Crepeau’s touching woman-to-woman love story Revoir Julie; Mario Andreachio’s Marshall Is Not An Alien, a Cinar Films coproduction with New Zealand; the Louis Belanger feature debut Odieuse felicite, featuring Gabriel Arcand as a loner in an unusual love fantasy set in a morgue, produced by Lorraine Dufour of Montreal’s Coop Video; and Carl Schultz’s To Walk With Lions, a Kingsborough Greenlight Pictures adventure starring Richard Harris.

Tonic’s latest foreign acquisitions include two wff ’98 entries, Alain Tanner’s Requiem and Danish director Suzan Bier’s Credo. The distributor is especially keen on Jacques Rivette’s Secret Defense, a riveting tale of dark family secrets.

Latour also picked up rights to two Lars Von Trier titles, The Idiot, slated for an October release, and the critically acclaimed 11-hour television drama The Kingdom, licensed by pubcaster Tele-Quebec.