Montreal: More than 200 film, video and digital works from 50 countries including 74 feature-length films, mostly top European fare, in addition to the regular mix of eclectic art house and indie productions, 20 digital works and a promising tribute/retrospective series make up this year’s 31st edition of the Montreal International Festival of New Cinema and New Media, Oct. 10-20.

Program highlights were unveiled during an innovative, big-screen digital presentation introduced by FCMM codirector Claude Chamberlan, the festival’s feature film programmer.

Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki’s double Cannes Film Festival winner The Man Without a Past (Seville Pictures) is the festival’s opening-night film. The closing-night film is Michael Mackenzie’s HDCAM feature The Baroness and the Pig (Film Tonic).

Special European feature screenings include Roman Polanski’s Palme d’Or winner The Pianist (TVA Films), Le Fils/The Son (Seville) from the Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Pedro Almodovar’s Parle Avec Elle (Seville) and Patrice Leconte’s L’Homme du train (Seville). Canadian features on the program include Atom Egoyan’s Ararat (Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm), Robert Morin’s Le Neg (Christal Films), Deepa Metha’s Bollywood/Hollywood (Mongrel Media) and Guy Maddin’s Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (Domino Film and Television).

Documentary screenings, 15 in all, programmed by Dimitri Eipides, include Seeing is Believing by Peter Wintonick and Katerina Cisek, Casa Loma by Carlos Ferrand and Gambling, Gods and LSD by Peter Mettler.

Retrospectives & tributes

FCMM’s retrospective and tribute program, in part organized in association with Cinematheque Quebecoise, includes the presentation of works by Canadian artist/experimental filmmaker Michael Snow, including his most recent feature, Corpus Callosum. Three of Snow’s installations, on loan from the National Gallery of Canada, will be exhibited at the Cinematheque.

American actress Gena Rowlands will attend an Oct. 12 event at the Cassavetes Theatre of Ex-Centris. A selection of Rowlands’ films is on the program.

The festival is also organizing a tribute screening/lecture series on the works of the late great British screenwriter Dennis Potter (Pennies from Heaven, The Singing Detective), as well as the works of French filmmaker Nicolas Philibert (La Moindre des choses). Philibert will be in Montreal to present his new documentary Tre et avoir/To Be and To Have, organized in association with the National Film Board.

A retrospective of the works of Polish animator/filmmaker Jerzy Kucia, presented in association with Film Polski and the General Consulate of Poland in Montreal, will be presented at the Cinematheque.

Egoyan installation

Egoyan, director of The Sweet Hereafter, voted best all-time Canadian movie in a recent poll of Playback readers, is the subject of a Cinematheque Quebecoise retrospective from Sept. 5 to Oct. 1. The Toronto filmmaker’s latest installation, Hors d’usage, is on exhibit at the Musee d’art contemporain through to Oct. 20.

The FCMM’s innovative Digital Creation section includes 20 new media works on the themes of narrative and visual research in interactive film, CD/DVD-ROMs, installations, Internet projects and multimedia performance formats.

FCMM’s principal sponsor is Volkswagen. Its patron is the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science, and Technology.

-www.fcmm.com