Festival organizers will receive $150,000 and technical support for outdoor screenings for its 36th edition, which starts Aug. 23.
Local film school and university students will receive free admission to most screenings to support the development of a local film industry.
The inaugural panels and meetings aim to encourage co-productions between Chinese producers and Canadian and other foreign partners.
The Montreal World Film Festival competition jury gave no prizes to Canadian films, leaving it up to the audience to choose the most popular homegrown feature and short.
The Alliance Films boss will be honoured in Montreal, where he first started out as a film distributor in the early 1970s.
The Montreal World Film Festival wrapped Monday amid intense criticism from two influential members of Quebec’s film community: director Denis Villeneuve and veteran La Presse film critic Marc Cassivi.
Peace Arch Entertainment picked up the broadcast rights to the Canadian pic, and plans a VOD release in early 2011.
Once-troubled festival rolls out stars and “good harvest” of films