Montreal: The 28th edition of the Montreal International Festival of New Cinema and New Media has programmed close to 200 works from 34 countries, including 55 feature films, 82 short and medium-length films, and 50 new media presentations.

The popular event unfolds at the new Ex-Centris complex, at the Media Lounge in the Just For Laughs Museum, with additional screenings at Cinematheque Quebecoise.

The fcmm (Festival International Nouveau Cinema Nouveaux Medias) runs from Oct. 14-24, with Cannes festival winner Pedro Almodovar’s All About My Mother as the opening night film. The closing night film is French director’s Pascal Bonitzer’s new comedy, Rien sur Robert.

Feature highlights, a veritable who’s who of international independent cinema, include Venice festival prize winner Abbas Kiarostami’s Le Vent nous emportera, Alexandre Sokiurov’s Molokh, fest circuit favorite Peter Greenaway’s 8 1/2 Women, Atom Egoyan’s Felicia’s Journey, and Jim Jarmusch’s latest, Ghost Dog: the Way of the Samurai.

Also screening are Peter Wintonick’s National Film Board doc history, Cinema Verite: Defining the Moment, Canadian director Mike Hoolbloom’s Panic Bodies and u.s. director Hal Hartley’s digital video-shot feature, The Book of Life.

Features in competition this year are being judged by director Charles Biname, Toronto International Film Festival director Piers Handling and renowned movie poster designer Benjamin Baltimore.

A special festival section, News From China, has been programmed by actress Sylvia Chang and filmmaker Francois Girard. Ten feature films are included in this program, one for each day of the festival.

On Oct. 19, sodec has organized an event called Focus 10:00:00:00, a business forum and screening event in honor of the agency’s 10-year-old Jeunes Createurs program. More than 700 directors, writers and producers under the age of 35 have benefited from this program over the years.

fcmm’s funding agencies and sponsors include sodec, Telefilm Canada, Laurentian Bank, Quebecor and Volkswagen.

Daniel Langlois is the president of fcmm. Claude Chamberlan is vp/festival director and Luc Bourdon and Alain Mongeau are its sectional program directors.