Montreal: The big winners at the 27th edition of the Montreal World Film Festival are director Louis Belanger and his second feature, Gaz Bar Blues, the hometown favorite in the official long-form competition.

Selected as the WFF opening-night presentation, Belanger’s film won four prizes, including the Grand Prix Special du Jury (awarded to the second best film in competition), the award for the most popular Canadian film in the festival, an Air Canada prize for the overall second most popular film as voted by the festival public, and the Ecumenical Prize. It was the first time in 25 years that the Ecumenical Prize went to a North American film.

Natasha Rybina, head of sales at Filmoption International, says Gaz Bar Blues drew a lot interest from buyers at the Montreal International Film Market. Rybina is negotiating foreign sales with at least a dozen territories. ‘The film received a 10-minute standing ovation and rave reviews from local and international press,’ says Rybina. ‘RAI [Italian public television] saluted the Canadian director and compared his work with that of Rossellini.’

Belanger, one of Quebec’s most promising young directors, won the WFF prize for best direction in 1999 for his first feature, Post Mortem.

Gaz Bar Blues is produced by Lorraine Dufour of Coop Video de Montreal/Productions 23 and opened in theaters in Quebec Sept. 5. The distrib is Film Tonic/Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm.

The fest also featured a strong showing of films revealing the dark totalitarian past of the ex-Yugoslavian republic.

Goran Markovic’s Kordon, a Serbia/Montenegro production, won the WFF top prize, Le Grand Prix des Ameriques. The film is a dramatization of an abandoned and brutal police detachment’s long battle with anti-Milosevic demonstrators in 1997. Kordon is available through Viktorija Films.

The festival prize for best screenplay and the international critics award (FIPRESCI) was won by Dusan Kovacevic for The Professional, another Serbia/Montenegro production and a post-Milosevic reminiscence between a former activist and the secret service agent who followed his every move. The film is available through Michel Zgarka/

Limelight Films.

Another important winner this year was Antonio Mercero’s Spanish feature Planta 4a (4th Floor). It won the Jury Prize for best direction and the Air Canada People’s Choice Award as the festival’s most popular film.

Other winning Canadian productions include Trent Carlson’s mockumentary The Delicate Art of Parking, produced by Vancouver’s Anagram Pictures and distributed by Cinema Libre, taking home a Zenith d’Or prize as best Canadian film in the Continental section, and the late Richard Boutet feature-length entry Sexe de rue, which won the Zenith d’Or for best documentary. Sexe de rue is produced by Vent d’Est Films and distributed by 7e Art Distribution.

The FedEx prizes for most popular Canadian shorts at the festival were won by Laura Turek for Cherry Fruitbread (first prize) and Nicolas Brault for Ilot, an animated short about an Inuit fisherman produced by the National Film Board.

The Jury award for best first feature film, from all sections of the festival, went to Genevieve Mersch for J’ai toujours voulu etre une sainte (Luxembourg-Belgique), with honorable mentions to U.S. director Leslie Shearing for Dogs in the Basement and Canadian director Benjamin Ratner for Moving Malcolm.

The winning films in the official short film competition are French director Patrick Bossard’s Vie et mort d’un instant d’ennui (first prize) and U.S. director Michael Bergmann’s In Bed with My Books (second prize).

Student Film Festival

Top prizes at the 34th Canadian Student Film Festival went to Felix Lajeunesse of Concordia University for Electrinite and Wendi Marchioni of York University for Winter Days. Lajeunesse won the $1,000 NFB/Norman McLaren Award for best production and a trip to the Munich International Festival of Film Schools in November. Marchioni won the $5,000 Kodak Director Award along with a 10-day stay at the ’04 Cannes Film Festival.

For a full list of ’03 WFF award winners, go to www.ffm-montreal.org.