MONTREAL — The founder of the World Film Festival, Serge Losique, obstinately refused to answer questions at the press conference on Tuesday that revealed the lineup for the 33rd edition of his festival.

Before reading dispassionately from a list of 400 featured titles, Losique, wearing his trademark baseball cap, thanked his major sponsors, which include Quebecor, Lotto Quebec and the Hyatt Regency. When asked by a radio reporter, who was having technical problems, for an interview after the conference, Losique said no: ‘The Queen of England only gave one interview and after that she never gave one again.’

Although he wouldn’t respond to queries about the festival, Losique expressed pleasure that roughly 200 people turned out for his press conference, which was held at Montreal’s downtown Imperial Cinema. ‘I had read today that journalists were disappearing. But I’m happy that so many of you exist. May you live eternally like the Montreal World Film Festival,’ he said.

The festival will close with the official film of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the doc The Everlasting Flame.

Twenty feature films and 13 shorts have been programmed in the official competition, including Un cargo pour l’Afrique (A Cargo for Africa) by Quebec director Roger Cantin. Roger Boire and Jean-Pierre Roy will also bring their controversial film Questions nationales about the repercussions of independence movements for Quebec, Scotland and Catalonia.

Once lauded as the premiere North American showcase for international cinema, the WFF is now widely criticized as a badly managed festival which lacks focus. Yesterday’s disjointed press conference likely won’t improve the WFF’s reputation.

Five years ago, Telefilm Canada and its provincial counterpart, SODEC, withdrew a total of $1 million amid allegations that the festival was poorly run. Government funding from all levels was briefly redirected to the New Montreal FilmFest, which folded after its first year.

Despite losing funding, Losique, who will celebrate his 80th birthday in a few years, has continued to put on his festival and is once again supported by SODEC. This year Telefilm kicked in $276,000 for the festival and $52,500 for subtitling costs.

Public Works Minister Christian Paradis also gave WFF $445,000 last week, although it’s not clear where that cash will go, says the festival’s general director Danièle Cauchard. ‘They haven’t given us the money yet. It’s for extra projects, not directly for the festival. We have to come up with some extra expenses. Eventually we will use it, but it will take a lot of planning. The WFF received the federal funding under the Marquee Tourism Events Program.

There are 130 world premieres among the films to screen throughout the festival, which runs from Aug. 27 to Sept 7.

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This story has been corrected. The festival will close with The Everlasting Flame, not open as originally reported.