When the Festival du Nouveau Cinema unravels Oct. 18-28 in Montreal, it will unspool many noteworthy titles that also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Philippe Falardeau’s critically praised Congorama will open the 35th FNC, alongside other TIFF selections, such as Volver by Spain’s Pedro Almodóvar, John Cameron Mitchell’s sexually explicit U.S. indie Shortbus, Palme d’Or winner The Wind That Shakes the Barley by Ken Loach, Dans les villes by Quebec’s Catherine Martin, and the U.S. comedy Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, a huge hit in Toronto.

It will also screen Danish auteur Lars von Trier’s new comedy The Boss of It All, which is making its North American debut, plus Karim Hussain’s local entry La Belle bête, Joshua Dorsey’s Montreal youth ensemble The Point and experimental Toronto filmaker Mike Hoolboom’s latest, Fascination.

‘I feel like we’re able to present a very good mix of films. There will be something to please everyone,’ says FNC ringmaster Claude Chamberlan. ‘Our festival has always been about offering something new and different. We are always renewing ourselves – there is always a sense of rejuvenation around the FNC.’

FNC will also present a complete retrospective of Norman McLaren’s work – more exhaustive than the one screened at Cannes and TIFF – including a documentary on McLaren himself and several new animated films inspired by his work.

Conveniently for industry types, FNC runs right after the second annual Digimart (Oct. 16-18). The fest and the digital cinema market, although not officially linked, are hoping to share each other’s hype.

‘Our opening party will also serve as their closing one,’ says Chamberlan.

He concedes the past two years have been tumultuous, to say the least. There was a hostile takeover effort by the upstart New Montreal FilmFest and a split with multimillionaire benefactor Daniel Langlois, the Softimage founder and owner of the Ex-Centris cinema complex.

‘It’s been an odd two years,’ he says, but adds that he and his festival are returning to a sense of normalcy, especially as the FNC and Langlois have reconnected after their year-long rift.

Langlois has renewed his association with the FNC, paying off a half-million-dollar debt and committing to a partnership with the event for the next decade at least.

The FNC’s 35th year was also rocked by revelations that the event had actually been assessed by SODEC and Telefilm Canada as the frontrunner for a new festival for the agencies to support in place of the World Film Festival. A 93-page report, tabled in the Quebec legislature on May 4, stated that the FNC had created a winning proposal for growth as a film festival, and that the government funding would have gone to the festival, but SODEC and Telefilm decided instead to back the ill-fated NMFF, which died after its inaugural edition.

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