Montreal: The competing polarities of business and culture are always at the forefront of exchange at the annual Montreal World Film Festival Symposium, but this year’s timely agenda and lineup of heavyweight industry panelists is the most comprehensive ever.

A sampling of some of the influential personalities attending Multimedia ’95, which runs Aug. 28-29, includes Pierre Juneau, president, cbc/the National Film Board/ Telefilm Canada Review Committee; Francois Macerola, executive director, Telefilm; Jack Valenti, president, Motion Picture Association of America; Phillippe-Olivier Rousseau, commissioner, Conseil Superieur de l’Audiovisuel (France); and Robert Lantos, chairman and ceo of Alliance Communications.

wff communications vp David Novek, the symposium’s organizing chair, says this year’s expanded program includes the annual Canadian Bar Association’s media and communications workshop sessions, open to all registered delegates.

Workshop and panel topics include updates on Telefilm and sodec, competition on the information superhighway, developments in multimedia, changes in the international children’s market, legislative and legal developments in an interconnected and wired world, a satellite tv update, and developments in cable.

Also up for discussion are u.s./Canada coventures, European and North American alliances, Canadian ownership rules and broadcasting policy, the financing of Canadian production, and the impact of new technologies on the film and television industry.

The keynote luncheon speakers are Robert Dowling, publisher of The Hollywood Reporter, and USA Today columnist Kevin Maney, author of Megamedia Shakeout.

Multimedia ’95, ‘Where in the World are We Headed,’ will take place at the downtown Hotel Westin Mont-Royal and is organized by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, the Canadian Bar Association and the WFF Foundation.