It was one year ago that private Montreal firm SECOR released its report on the state of film festivals across Canada. Due to the report’s scolding of the management of Montreal’s World Film Festival for being distant, difficult and ineffectual, Telefilm Canada and SODEC announced that they would withdraw their annual funding for the event starting in 2005. They declared that the money, which adds up to nearly $1 million, would go instead to a new and improved international film festival.

Many assumed that WFF founder and president Serge Losique would buckle under the pressure of such a loss in crucial revenue. They thought his sponsors would flee, given the hemorrhaging of funds and that, after years of bitter criticism, nasty abrasion with members of the local film community, and gallons of ink spilled regarding its alleged mediocrity, the World would finally be coming to an end.

They would all prove wrong.

Despite his detractors, Losique has survived, and his festival is slated to proceed Aug. 26 to Sept. 5. And with every announcement made about the newly formed rival Festival international de films de Montreal (or New Montreal FilmFest, as it’s being called in English), Losique has fired back, launching his own shrewd series of counter-attacks in the media and the courtroom.

Telefilm and SODEC chose to award start-up monies to new festival organizer L’Équipe Spectra, the renowned private group that has created and run such hugely successful annual events as the Montreal International Jazz Festival and the FrancoFolies, the francophone music festival. Prominent local producer Roger Frappier, who sits on the board for the new fest, courted Moritz de Hadeln (formerly of both the Venice and Berlin film festivals) to come to Montreal to head up the new programming team. To foster good relations with the local film industry – something that had long been a sore point for WFF detractors – representatives from local distributors were invited to join FIFM’s board.

Meanwhile, a third festival, the Festival du nouveau cinéma, set to enter its 34th edition Oct. 13-23, was experiencing headaches of its own, as it lost director and founder Claude Chamberlan, who retired following an apparent conflict with André Lamy, the festival’s new general director. Chamberlan has since announced that he didn’t resign from the festival entirely and will remain on as a programmer.

But for every move forward on behalf of FIFM, Losique countered with a checkmate. He argued that Spectra would now have a monopoly on festival events in the city. He further pointed out that having members of Alliance Atlantis on the new festival’s board created a conflict of interest, and that despite his festival being widely referred to as the ‘World Film Festival,’ its official title in fact includes the word ‘International’ – and he had the legal papers to prove it. With this salvo, Losique announced through his lawyer that he was launching a series of legal challenges against the new fest organizers and Telefilm, which, he argued, had no right to withdraw its funding.

In an interview with Playback, Losique insisted that he is ‘a man of cinema, not a military man.’ Yet he went on to take aim at his enemies. ‘The people who attack me are just jealous. We have been successful right from the start, and that creates jealousy.’ And Spectra, he argues, is far too beholden to business and not art. ‘They want to make money. This is not about commerce, it’s about cinema.’

Spectra president Alain Simard is clearly frustrated by the situation, but he is soldiering on. ‘We offered Serge Losique a position in the new festival a number of times,’ he says. ‘He turned every offer down. It’s too bad…He is like a wolf, howling in the desert alone.’

As for the conflict of interest charges, Simard says that he and his group ‘have been intent upon ending an era of confrontation between the festivals and the industry. Yes, the industry is on board, because we have the same goals – to create a viable, popular festival. But the lines have been made very clear [and] the board of directors has no intervention power in terms of the selection of films.’

For his part, Losique has also made the savvy move of officially getting back on the A-list of competitive film festivals with the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF), after being kicked off two years ago. That falling out occurred as a result of Losique’s scheduling of the WFF to conflict with the Toronto festival. Ironically, Losique scoffed at FIAPF’s importance at the time, but now speaks of what a crucial organization it is. FIFM, meanwhile, has announced that a representative from FIAPF will also be attending its event and will decide if it will get a similar endorsement as a world-class competitive festival.

The standoff continues. ‘People said they thought the World is over,’ Losique says. ‘[But] it’s like Yogi Berra once said, ‘It ain’t over till it’s over.”

Responds Simard: ‘Yes, this will be a bit of a confusing year [with three Montreal festivals.] But we have already secured $3 million in funding for this, our inaugural year. [For] next year, we have $4 million already in place.’

Some have pointed fingers at Telefilm, saying the federal agency has clumsily attempted to supplant the WFF without having a replacement festival secured before doing so. But, says Telefilm spokesman Jean-Claude Mahé, ‘we find that the festival file has been well managed between Telefilm and SODEC. A great majority of the film industry associations rallied behind our decision of ensuring that in Montreal our national cinema be given a general public festival of international scope, whose management, cooperative spirit and vision contribute to the growth of the industry.’

Meanwhile, Simard sees nothing but growth for FIFM, set to unspool Sept. 18-25. ‘Things are often bumpy at the start,’ he says. ‘Things will be different in the years to come.’

www.ffm-montreal.org

www.montrealfilmfest.com

www.nouveaucinema.ca/