The Montreal World Film Festival (), commonly abbreviated MWFF in English or FFM in French, was an annual film festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada from 1977 to 2019."Montreal World Film Festival abruptly cancelled weeks before opening". CBC News Montreal, July 22, 2019. Founded and run throughout its lifetime by Serge Losique, it was the first competitive film festival in North America accredited by the FIAPF."Stars come out for Montreal Film Festival". Canadian Press, August 21, 1966.
The public festival, which was founded in 1977 as a replacement for the defunct Montreal International Film Festival (1960–68), was held annually in late August.Matthew Hays and Martin Siberok, "Cinema has been 'abused horrifically'". The Globe and Mail, September 04, 2000. Unlike the Toronto International Film Festival, which has a greater focus on Canadian and other North American films, the Montreal World Film Festival had a larger diversity of films from all over the world.
Throughout its life, the festival saw various controversies around Losique's leadership, including uneven programming,Brendan Kelly, "Too many films, too few enticements for the under-40s; World film fest badly needs a sharper focus and a way to attract the Fantasia crowd". Montreal Gazette, August 18, 2008. a marketing strategy that sometimes seemed more concerned with throwing barbs at the Toronto International Film Festival than with actually building the MWFF's brand, and increasing financial irregularities.
The festival was abruptly cancelled in 2019, just a few weeks before that year's event had been scheduled to launch.
History Losique launched the festival in part as a response to the inaugural 1976 Festival of Festivals, as he reportedly believed that Montreal was a more appropriate location than Toronto to be the host of a prestige film festival.Bill Marshall, "How the fest was won: TIFF founders lied and bluffed to outduel Montreal in 1976". National Post, September 7, 2001. After screening an inaugural program in summer 1977,Louis Marcorelles, "Deux semaines de films à Montréal". Le Monde, August 30, 1977. he pursued the FIAPF accreditation, which was secured in early 1978."World film festival planned". The Globe and Mail, February 15, 1978. The 1978 event, however, saw the first instance of Losique using his position to take a public swipe at the Toronto festival, when he sent four films that had been booked to appear at both festivals back to their distributors after their Montreal screenings instead of forwarding the prints to Toronto as directed.Jay Scott, "Festival claims Losique refused to forward films". The Globe and Mail, February 14, 1978.
As early as 1980, the festival was marketing itself as one that was focused more on the films than their stars,Dane Lanken, "Montreal's no-star festival lets the films speak for themselves". The Globe and Mail, August 25, 1980. with Losique regularly trumpeting that motto through the years as the thing that made his festival better than Toronto's.Alastair Sutherland, "World-beat screenings". Maclean's, September 2, 1996.
By 1985, Losique was already beginning to attract criticism for running the festival in an "authoritarian" and "Napoleonic" manner,"Montreal, Toronto fests: Vive la difference". Montreal Gazette, September 10, 1985. with programming driven disproportionately by his own personal taste in film rather than consideration for what would appeal to the general public.Jay Scott, "Award-winning filmmakers are unknown no longer". The Globe and Mail, September 18, 1989. Through the 1980s, the Montreal and Toronto film festivals were typically seen as different but complementary events,"Montreal, Toronto fests: Vive la difference". Montreal Gazette, September 10, 1985. although Losique continued to lash out at any media suggestion that the events were comparable in prestige or quality,Bruce Bailey, "A tale of two movie festivals". Montreal Gazette, September 14, 1985. and his most consistent public relations strategy in this era was to release public statements criticizing TIFF's public relations statements for being insufficiently deferential to his festival's superiority.
By the 1990s, however, the MWFF was clearly losing prestige as TIFF gained in international clout;Alex Patterson, "Festival fails to excite". Calgary Herald, August 31, 1991. even within Montreal, its prominence was being increasingly challenged by the Festival du nouveau cinéma, which although older than the MWFF had previously been much smaller until gaining momentum in the early 1990s.John Griffin, "Is this Montreal's real film festival? 20-year-old New Cinema event now rivals Losique's big show". Montreal Gazette, October 12, 1991. In 1991, for the first time, newspapers in Montreal began running front-page stories calling for Losique to step down and hand over leadership of the festival to a successor due to poor programming decisions and declining attendance.Sid Adilman, "Montreal papers slam film festival, founder". Toronto Star, August 29, 1991.
In 1998, the festival faced heavy criticism when it opted to present a lifetime achievement award to Sandra Bullock, despite her still having been known only for a few hit films over the past couple of years at that point, rather than the sort of sustained career typically required to earn lifetime achievement honours.Martin Knelman, "Festivals get starstruck: cineastes traditionally shun Hollywood stars. But the almighty dollar is changing all that". Financial Post, September 5, 1998. This was perceived as undermining Losique's longtime assertion that his event was film-driven instead of star-driven while TIFF was the other way around.
By 2000, even filmmakers from Quebec were frequently bypassing MWFF, instead opting to "stampede down the 401" to TIFF due to its much higher international profile before screening in Montreal at the FNC or the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois instead of the MWFF.Matthew Hays, "'The World Film Fest has managed to alienate far too much of the local film community'". The Globe and Mail, August 15, 2000.
The WFF lost the sponsorship of its previous government cultural funders, SODEC and Telefilm Canada as a result of disagreements with Losique in 2004, after Losique refused to cooperate with a review by those agencies of Canada's major film festivals.Matthew Hays, "He's got the whole World in his hands". The Globe and Mail, August 26, 2004. Subsequently, these two funding agencies announced that they would support a new international film festival, called the New Montreal FilmFest (FIFM), to be managed by Spectra Entertainment and headed by Daniel Langlois.Brendan Kelly, "Battle royale". Variety, August 29, 2005.
Despite the competing festival and the loss of government funding, however, Losique continued to organize the World Film Festival,Nelson Wyatt, "Montreal film festival marks 29th year with less money, more competition". Canadian Press, August 30, 2005. and filed lawsuits against both Telefilm and Spectra, further suing Moritz de Hadeln personally after he was announced as FIFM's artistic director. The 2005 FIFM was not successful, and the event was discontinued;Guy Dixon, "New Montreal Film Festival fizzles into oblivion". The Globe and Mail, February 14, 2006. as of July 2007, Losique's lawsuits were dropped, paving the way for a restoration of government funding.Brendan Kelly, "Losique is still hoping, and asking, for more, but coffers are fuller than in past". Montreal Gazette, August 23, 2007.
In 2005, Losique first announced and later withdrew the film Karla from the festival after the principal sponsor of the festival, Air Canada, threatened to withdraw its sponsorship of the festival if that film were included. The film — about Karla Homolka, a young woman who was convicted of manslaughter and who served twelve years in prison for her part in the kidnapping, sex enslavement, rapes and murders of teenage girls, including her own sister, in a case said to involve ephebophilia — was controversial in Canada, with many calling for its boycott throughout the country.
In 2015 a group of employees claimed they were not paid. In 2016 many of the employees resigned, citing poor leadership and financial uncertainty amongst other issues. In an interview with CTV News, Montreal Gazette entertainment columnist Bill Brownstein referred to Losique as having a "Napoleonic complex" and not "playing well with the other children" resulting in government and sponsors withdrawing their funding support. He subsequently wrote in the Gazette that Losique, "who once took pride in his Napoleonic style of autocracy, has sadly morphed into a facsimile of The Simpsons near-fossilized cartoon despot Mr. Burns. Losique appears to have run out of smoke and mirrors."Bill Brownstein, "Festival des films du monde started out with such promise". Montreal Gazette, September 1, 2016.
In the same year Cineplex Entertainment withdrew its support from the festival, causing it to lose the Forum Theatre as a venue.T'Cha Dunlevy, "Forum out of picture for FFM; Screenings at Imperial Cinema going ahead as scheduled". Montreal Gazette, August 25, 2016. Left with only the Imperial Cinema for a venue, the festival had to cancel some of its planned screenings and proceed with a reduced lineup, although several of the city's independent theatres stepped in to help screen films at the last minute.T'Cha Dunlevy, "Ending On A Cliffhanger; The Festival des films du monde's chaotic 40th edition is over. Now what?". Montreal Gazette, September 6, 2016.
In 2017, power was cut at the Imperial Theatre in July, just a few weeks before the festival, due to unpaid electricity bills,T'Cha Dunlevy, "Serge Losique won't pull plug on Festival des films du monde; Director unfazed by money issues". Montreal Gazette, July 26, 2017. with that year's festival being saved by a last-minute intervention by Pierre-Karl Péladeau and Québecor.T'Cha Dunlevy, "Festival des films du monde is back for more". Montreal Gazette, August 24, 2017.
In 2018 the festival was accused by Revenu Québec of owing almost $500,000 in unpaid taxes,"Quebec Revenue Department targets Montreal World Film Festival for unpaid taxes". Canadian Press, July 12, 2018. but the festival was allowed to proceed that year after Losique made an initial payment of $33,000."Montreal World Film Festival to go on as planned after founder pays back taxes". Canadian Press, August 1, 2018.
By this time, Brendan Kelly of the Montreal Gazette was explicitly calling for the festival to be shut down, writing that "Way back in the early days of the festival in the late '70s and early '80s, the FFM was a happening event that could be said to be seriously rival the Toronto fest, then called the Festival of Festivals. But that hasn't been true for 30 years, and it's almost entirely Losique's fault. As long as the FFM exists, it drags down the city's film scene. Agencies and producers in other countries who don't realize Losique's fest is irrelevant send films and filmmakers, and the poor auteurs turn up to discover they're screening films in front of near-empty rooms. It also causes enormous problems for the other much more relevant film festivals in our city, notably the Festival du nouveau cinéma and Fantasia. These festivals have not been given the chance to step up and become the city's première festival with Losique's event staggering from edition to edition."Brendan Kelly, "Bring down the curtain on Serge Losique's film festival". Montreal Gazette, July 17, 2018.