Montreal World Film Festival '07: Overview

Overall it was a rather quiet festival. There was only seven (eight if we count the short feature) Japanese movies this year. We have seen and reviewed most of them (The only movie we couldn't see was ÒDear FriendsÓ). Despite the fact that the festival was finally getting subsidies again, we could feel a slight level of disorganization. However, the movie selection was good, so there was no real reason to complain.

It seems that the festival has regained it breath this year, reaffirming its strong position in the ÒnicheÓ of festival that display and promote young filmakers. The fact that people came from a long distance (in QuŽbec, Canada but also from the USA) to attend this festival prove its success and that this strategy is a winning choice.

For my part, as long as there are good movies to watch--movies that I couldn't see anywhere else--I am happy. I don't care about the big stars and I certainly don't care to see in World Premiere a movie that will play in a thousand theatres the week after. That's for the Toronto Film Festival. The Montreal Film Festival is for the real movies fans, the Òcinephiles,Ó and I am perfectly happy with that. I just would like to see more Japanese movies next year.

Reviewed by Claude J. Pelletier

See a full review of the festival in Protoculture Addicts #96's Event Report (page 71).

For more information see the Montreal World Film Festival web site.