After attending yet another bizarre press conference launching Serge Losique’s once-reputed Montreal World Film Festival, I wondered if anyone atagencies SODEC and Telefilm Canada, or the federal government is paying attention.

It’s been over five years since both agencies pulled their combined $1 million funding, alleging the WFF was badly managed. This year Telefilm beefed up its contribution to roughly $328,000. SODEC provided $340,000 and the feds wrote a cheque for $445,000 under Industry Canada’s Marquee Tourism Events Program.

So the agencies are back on side. And while the press reports that the WFF is newly invigorated, my impression is quite the opposite.

Despite the very competent staff working on the ground, this year’s opening press conference, like the event itself, was impenetrable and confusing. Comparing himself to the Queen of England, Losique refused to answer direct questions. When probed by a CBC Radio journalist to give a few festival highlights, his co-president Daniele Cauchard responded, ‘We are passionate about everything, everything.’

Her response left the impression that either she wasn’t prepared or didn’t know much about her own lineup. As a result, journalists and the public were left to pick over a dizzying 457 titles from largely unrecognizable directors. The festival bills itself as a champion of new international talent. But which talent?

‘As a critic it’s very hard to take it seriously as a festival,’ veteran Le Devoir film writer Odile Tremblay told me. ‘The WFF says there are undiscovered gems in their lineup, but it’s hard to know where to start.’ Tremblay says she believes the festival needs to be taken over by new blood. ‘But they tried to organize a new festival and they messed up,’ she says, referring to the ill-fated New Montreal FilmFest which SODEC and Telefilm supported in 2005 after they pulled their cash from the WFF.

Cauchard says journalists have trouble recognizing her titles because they are ignorant. ‘I don’t want the festival to be focused. It’s an international festival of works from around the world. What should we do? Act as a censor? It’s as if a film has to be discovered by the Americans before someone opens their eyes. It is because we are so colonized.’

But it’s not just critics who are disoriented. Canadian filmmaker Mike Stasko premiered his first feature Iodine (The Dot Film Company), starring Ray Wise (Twin Peaks), at WFF this year.

‘There are too many films. So we really have to compete for an audience. And the rooms are half-empty,’ says the director, adding that he was nonetheless thrilled to have his film chosen by the festival programmers. Stasko was also disappointed that there was no time for a Q&A with the audience, which is de rigeur at most festivals. ‘I had to do it out in the hallway. And that was a bit awkward.’

But the festival has its defenders. Louis Dussault, the distributor for K-Films Amérique (I Killed My Mother), views it as an essential launching pad for Quebec auteur films. ‘I don’t know what I would do without it. As a buyer I often find little jewels that TIFF has overlooked.’

Dussault believes the festival is disorganized because it’s underfinanced. ‘Cauchard does the work of 20 people. She is overwhelmed. So sometimes she’s late getting back to people, and often she’s in a bad mood. But there are reasons.’

SODEC’s interim director Gilles Corbeil is similarly tolerant of the event’s failings. ‘It’s not perfect, but we have to give it a chance to get back to what it was. Last year [Losique] came in on budget, and our desire is to help the festival to reposition itself.’ Corbeil says he’s satisfied the event is being run well. ‘In terms of governance and financial matters, Losique has addressed the problems.’

That may be true on paper. But the festival desperately needs a makeover. To say it highlights emerging directors from around the world masks a programming process that appears to lack rigor. The film audience here is a discerning one and the WFF needs to do more work to attract them. Programmers need to spend more time selecting fewer films and allow time between screenings for Q&As. (Sundance only screens 200 films.)

The WFF’s once-alluring program – its chief promotional tool — is now poorly written; many of the descriptions are too lengthy and don’t spark interest. And in a city with some of the best graphic designers in North America, this year’s poster, like last year’s, lacks imagination.

Many in the industry are making excuses for a festival leadership whose time has come. While it’s undoutably a challenge to run an international festival when Toronto snaps up the big-name stars and titles first, the WFF has immense potential: a dynamic host city, excellent facilities, committed volunteers, a professional staff and a public interested in seeing non-American films from around the world. Montreal filmgoers and the filmmakers who come here to promote their work deserve better. The WFF should be both a prestigious showcase for Quebec film and a North American gateway for auteur works from around the world. When will someone step up to the plate and make it an event worthy of supporting?

(Telefilm Canada would not provide comment for this article.)