MONTREAL: Serge Losique isn’t so sure he likes the word ‘comeback.’

‘How could we come back? We never disappeared,’ says the founder, director general and chief programmer of Montreal’s World Film Festival.

Even if his festival, which will unspool its 31st edition Aug. 23 to Sept. 3, isn’t exactly experiencing a comeback, this year at least signals a reversal of fortune. It was a mere two years ago that two of Losique’s key government benefactors, Telefilm Canada and SODEC, yanked their funding after alleged mismanagement of the WFF. And the agencies had a replacement plan: money was pumped into an upstart event, the New Montreal FilmFest, which would run in the fall, after the WFF.

Many expected Losique to call it a day, but he didn’t – instead, he sued. His lawyers took on Telefilm, arguing that the funder had a legal obligation to back his festival. In 2005, the WFF went ahead, albeit in a bare-bones version. And Losique got what any warrior would want in an adversary: weakness. The NMFF tanked epically, with near-empty theaters, public infighting among its team, and loud griping from guests, including Atom Egoyan.

Cut to 2007, and things couldn’t look better for Losique. SODEC is back on board, to the tune of $200,000 for WFF ’07; and he’s called off the lawyers, dropping his suits against Telefilm back in March.

‘That festival that was started collapsed. What was the use? The horse is dead. What would be the point of beating it?’ he says, explaining his change of heart.

Telefilm is now expected to also pony up for this year’s WFF. (As of Aug. 13, a spokesperson for the funder would only say that negotiations are ‘still ongoing.’) Losique does his best not to gloat.

‘When you work in the arts, it’s always like this,’ he says philosophically. ‘People who are involved with artistic achievement have to fight all the time. Look at the regimes around the world, where artists are locked up for speaking out. It happens. We were never going to disappear – we love the cinema too much.’

Losique says he is ecstatic about this year’s WFF lineup. ‘We have incredible films from everywhere – Japan, Africa – and great Canadian ones, too. I think this has been a particularly strong year for cinema. I’ve seen some work that really impressed me, and we’ll be showing it here.’

Among the domestic highlights is the dramedy Surviving My Mother, director Émile Gaudreault’s follow-up to 2003’s Mambo Italiano. Mother, produced by Denise Robert and Daniel Louis, stars Caroline Dhavernas and Colin Mochrie and will screen in the World Competition showcase, along with the Quebec flick Toi, a romantic drama helmed by François Delisle.

Losique is also thrilled about the talent that will be in attendance. Come opening night, he will be flanked by Academy Award winner Jon Voight and French actress Sophie Marceau. Both thesps will be feted with lifetime achievement awards. Voight will also be promoting the western drama September Dawn, in which he stars, while Marceau is in town to support La disparue de Deauville, which she directed and stars in.

A new initiative this year is the Midnight Slam program, which will offer off-kilter, cultish fare, and sounds very similar to the Midnight Madness sidebar at the Toronto International Film Festival.

‘These are completely different,’ Losique insists. ‘Midnight Slam is about HD and 3D – about new technologies and the future of cinema.’

One no doubt wonders how Losique has managed to weather the ups and downs of running such a contentious film festival for so long.

The Quebec film community is unpredictable, he muses. ‘One minute they kill you, the next minute they kiss you,’ he says. ‘And right now, everyone is kissing us!’

ffm-montreal.org