Montreal: The Festival du Nouveau Cinéma enjoyed a 38% boost in attendance and favorable reviews this year, which founder and director Claude Chamberlan is crediting to its lineup.

‘The quality of films this year was very good indeed,’ said Chamberlan, speaking after the 10-day fest wrapped on Oct. 28.

FNC hosted some 62,000 moviegoers during its 35th edition, putting on 344 screenings and other events. Chamberlan says a new schedule – which included more morning and daytime showings – helped to broaden the FNC’s audience among students and seniors.

Many of the highest-profile films had already screened at the Toronto International Film Festival – including Shortbus, Volver, Babel and Borat.

‘We had booked most of those films long before we knew what was playing at TIFF,’ he notes. ‘How can we help that?’

At the closing awards, New York-based filmmaker Julia Loktev and her feature debut Day Night Day Night took the Louve d’Or jury prize for best feature, with special mention going to Quebecer Sophie Deraspe for Rechecher Victor Pellerin and to Norwegian Jens Lien for The Bothersome Man, which won the Quebec Film Critics Association Prize. Quebec filmmaker Maxime Giroux won the $1,000 National Film Board short film award for his Les Jours.

Quebec’s longest-running international film festival had a rough patch during the short life of the New Montreal FilmFest, which did much to disrupt the city’s festivals in 2005.

Chamberlan is particularly happy that this long and arduous soap opera finally appears to be behind him and the FNC.

‘I think [the NMFF] was trying to compete with the Toronto festival, in terms of being a red-carpet, flashy event,’ he says. ‘I don’t see the point in trying to do that. We’re doing our own thing.’

The 36th annual FNC will be held Oct. 17-27, 2007.

www.nouveaucinema.ca