The Montreal World Film Festival wrapped Monday amid intense criticism from two influential members of Quebec’s film community: director Denis Villeneuve and veteran La Presse film critic Marc Cassivi.

While Cassivi commended the WFF jury for awarding its Grand Prix des Americas to Oxygen, a Dutch-Belgian film by director Hans Van Nuffel about young people struggling to live with cystic fibrosis, the well-known journalist was unimpressed by many of the films he watch at the 34th edition of the festival.

In the Saturday edition of the French-language daily he concluded that the overall caliber of the films is ”sadly mediocre.” In the same article he described the FFM as being ”disconnected, regional” and ” in ruins,” with a total absence of artistic direction.

”Cassivi’s opinion is not news,” WFF spokesman Henry Welsh told Playback Daily. ”He has been saying the same thing for years. It is very unfair to say the festival is a total failure. In general, the comments I get from people are very positive. The head of the jury, Bille August, called it one of the greatest festivals in the world.”

The week before Cassivi blasted the WFF Villeneuve, who launched his new film Incendies at the Venice Film Festival, declared that the FFM had no reputation on the international festival circuit: ”It’s a municipal festival which presents films from around the world,’ he told the tabloid Journal de Montreal.

While no one from SODEC was available to comment for this article, Telefilm spokeswoman Denise Arab said in an email to Playback that it supports the WFF because it meets the federal agency’s criteria in terms of total audience, Canadian content and the capacity to generate income.

Arab went on to say that Cassivi represents the opinion of one columnist and that “the WFF offers Canadian artists an opportunity to showcase their work and allows for productive exchanges among filmmakers and industry representatives from here and abroad.”

Six years ago both Telefilm and SODEC pulled their combined $1 million funding alleging the WFF was badly managed. Both agencies now support the festival, as does Loto Quebec and Quebecor, its main media sponsor. While Cassivi’s piece reflects the opinion of other Quebec film critics covering the festival, an editorialist at Montreal’s French-language daily Le Devoir praised the festival for its popular appeal. Organizers say more than 300,000 people attend the WFF annually.