MONTREAL: Quebec cinema has experienced unprecedented growth in the past five or six years, and the local film community will celebrate its most recent output when the 25th edition of the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois unspools Feb. 15-25.

The festival reflects the robust variety of the province’s film milieu, with more than 250 films screening — all of them made in the past year — including features, shorts, documentaries, and experimental works.

In the past three years, RVCQ organizers have worked to enhance the opportunity for the public to interact with local directors and talent. This year the festival will continue to host a series of ‘5 à 7s,’ at which, over wine and cheese at the Cinémathèque québécoise, attendees will be able to mingle with filmmakers Robert Morin (Que Dieu bénisse l’Amérique), Philippe Falardeau (Congorama), George Mihalka (Les Boys IV), Charles Binamé (Maurice Richard) and actors Alexis Martin (L’Audition) and Rémy Girard (Les invasions barbares).

The completist RVCQ purports to present all Quebec films produced in the past year, including such notable titles as Bon Cop, Bad Cop, Cheech, Congorama and Un dimanche à Kigali. Premieres will include Mary Ellen Davis’ Territories, a documentary that follows Canadian photographer Larry Towell as he ventures to El Salvador and Palestine, capturing the human effects of war. Also bowing is Posthumous Pickle Party, Ezra Soiferman’s documentary profile of Monsieur Leibovich, owner of the legendary Simcha’s Grocery Store on St. Laurent Blvd. in Montreal.

On Feb. 15, the RVCQ will host the launch of the special-edition DVD of C.R.A.Z.Y. , and on Feb. 23 it will throw a party celebrating the record-breaking success of Bon Cop. That same day, a panel called Made in Quebec will explore the unique challenges of making English-language movies in la belle province. Panelists include producer Kevin Tierney (Bon Cop), filmmaker Daniel Cross (The Street) and Concordia film studies professor Dave Douglas.

The Rendez-vous was launched a quarter century ago as a way of promoting Quebec cinema, and it has evolved over time. In the late ’90s, for example, the fest dropped a restriction that barred English-language movies without French subtitles.

www.rvcq.com