Although indomitable Montreal World Film Festival founder Serge Losique continues his madcap approach to programming, the 2010 edition of the 34-year-old event has gained some credit this year with a slate of promising films in competition and big name guests.

”We worked hard to go off the beaten path to find our films,” Losique, 79, told the hundred people gathered at Montreal’s Imperial Theatre for a dreary press conference he and festival VP Danièle Cauchard essentially read non-stop from the list of 430 films from a record 80 countries which will be screened at the festival.

As in previous years, the pair were tight-lipped about why they chose the films they did, including the WFF opener, Route 132, the latest flick by Quebec filmmaker Louis Belanger (Gaz Bar Blues). ”It’s really good,” was as far as Cauchard would go to explain why she chose this film from one of Quebec’`s best loved directors to launch her fest.

Route 132 is among the 20 features from 24 countries in the World Competition category, which include some interesting titles by talented upcoming and established directors, including the Canadian flick Silence Lies, by Julie Hivon; From Childhood, by Mexican director Carlos Carrera, whose El crimen del Padre Amaro (2002) was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film; The Murder Farm, a creepy thriller about a family’s mass murder by Swiss German director Bettina Oberli, the director of the Swiss box office smash about retired women, Late Bloomers (2006); Russian director Svetlana Proskurina`s Truce, which picked up the top prize this year at the Sochi Open Russian Film Festival and American helmer Jeff Lipsky drama about a dysfunctional family Twelve Thirty and Carl Colpaert’s The Land of the Astronauts, which is also from the U.S. and stars David Arquette as a once-successful composer working as a chauffeur.

”It was a good harvest this year,” WFF spokesman Henry Welsh told Playback Daily. ”It always depends on what films are available and who is available.” Welsh also says the festival`s international reputation is bouncing back after a few years of negative press. 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.

This year’s festival will include tributes to French actress Nathalie Baye (Tell No One) and Italian actress Stefania Sandrelli (Bernardo Bertolucci’s Stealing Beauty). Last year’s jury president, Iranian director Jafar Panahi, will be honored tribute screenings of five of his features, including the The White Balloon and The Mirror, The Circle, Crimson Gold, Offside and Accordion.

Other Canadian films at the festival include The Neighbor by Naghmeh Shirkhan, I Was Once Told, by Aliaa Khachouck, Mary (Andrey Petrusha, New Year (Philip Borg) and the documentaries Turning 32 (Robbie Hart and Luc Cote), Corpus (Connie Diletti), Children of Soldiers (Claire Corriveau) and Black Hands (Tetchena Bellange).

The festival runs from Aug. 26-Sept. 6. French actor Gerard Depardieu will be in town to give a master class. The official competition jury is quarterbacked by acclaimed Danish director Bille August.