Montreal: The Conferences 2003 component of the Montreal World Film Festival will take place Sept. 1-3 at the Salon Hospitalite in the Wyndham Hotel.

This year’s conference theme is Financing Independent Productions, with 40 national and international panelists slated to participate in eight sessions on issues such as the choice of international distributor, the impact on financing of preselling to TV, the role of casting and profit forecasts.

Conference director Michel Zgarka says confirmed panelists include Kerry David, president of Kerry David Productions, U.S.; Brenda Z. Doby, VP/relationship manager, entertainment banking group, Union Bank of California; Vance Van Petten, executive director, Producers Guild of America; Sam Kitt, president, Forty Acres and a Mule Filmworks, U.S.; Bill Simon, managing director, global entertainment and media practice, Korn Ferry International, U.S.; Katerina Morvai, VP, Bonton Entertainment Group, Czech Republic; Talia Khali, acquisitions director, France Television; and Didier Sapaut, director, TF1, France.

The keynote presentation will be held Sept. 2 at the Mount Stephen’s Club. This year’s keynote speaker is Richard Sehlin, VP of R&D and chief technical officer, Eastman Kodak.

The International Competition has been renamed the World Competition. The festival’s programming and the international jury will be announced at a press conference on Aug. 12.

Other festival sections have been reorganized on a geographical basis, including sections from Europe, the U.S. and Latin America, Asia, Africa and Oceania and the Panorama Canada section.

The festival-going public will vote for their preferred films in all continental categories. The winner will receive a newly minted award, the Golden Zenith. The public will also vote for the best film in the Documentaries of the World section. A separate jury will present an award for the best first fiction feature film in the festival.

As in past years, the WFF program includes an Hors Concours (out of competition) section made up of ‘superior films’ not eligible for any of the competitive awards.

In terms of the International Film Market, Aug. 27 to Sept. 5, the festival has confirmed the presence of the Beijing Radio, Film and Television Group, the largest audiovisual media group in China. BRFT is comprised of 15 companies and will host a stand at the market. Delegates include Zhao Dongming, CEO of the group and Lu Ying, VP; Yan Yujing, president of the Beijing Forbidden City Film Studio, a subsidiary of BRFT; and Zhang Zhanhua, president of the Beijing Culture and Art Video Publishing House, another BRFT subsidiary.

Gilles Beriault is director of the WFF International Film market. Martin Malina is the festival’s director of communications.

The 27th edition of WFF will be held Aug. 27 to Sept. 7.

-www.ffm-montreal.org