The inaugural program includes films from South Korea, Japan, Cuba, Palestine, and more, the World Premiere of Winston DeGiobbi’s Two Cuckolds Go Swimming, and a special Closing Night presentation of Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language with Rankin in conversation with A Shrine filmmaker Abdolreza Kahani

The Montreal Critics’ Week is proud to unveil its first edition, taking place at the Cinémathèque québécoise and Cinéma Moderne from January 13 to 19, 2025. A selection of 19 films – short, medium, and feature-length – is bundled together over seven distinct evenings and the course of seven double and triple-billed programs. Each program will be followed by in-depth conversations between filmmakers, writers, and the public. 

An initiative of the Montreal-based online magazine Panorama-cinéma, the first annual Montreal Critics’ Week – the first of its kind in Canada – extends the online magazine’s critical lens offline by fostering a space for discourse and discovery in cinema. The festival showcases new and distinct works paired, juxtaposed or contrasted to encourage inquisitive spectatorship that considers the thematic, political and formal ramifications of the chosen works. 

The program for the inaugural Montreal Critics’ Week was compiled by a committee composed of Ariel Esteban Cayer, Mathieu Li-Goyette, and Olivier Thibodeau (Panorama-cinéma) as well as Mélopée B. Montminy (24 images) and Justine Smith (Little White Lies, Robert Ebert.com).

In a mission statement from Director of Programming Ariel Esteban Cayer and General Manager Mathieu Li-Goyette, the two wrote: “This new event opens on a cliché: that film criticism – and by extension film critics – may be too demanding, elitist, disgruntled, or obsolete. And yet, film criticism also endeavors to define new trends, to champion new voices, and to curate works in ways that propel the art form forward – that make cinema accessible in a project distinct from the requirements of marketing. Everywhere, similar questions arise again and again, concerning the streaming ecosystem, the politics of festivals, the lack of funding in the arts, and the limits of the image itself. More than ever, film critics must make a useful contribution to these conversations through their choices. This selection attempts to paint a critical portrait of the world today, grappled with by films of great perspective, ambition, and integrity, no matter whether they are rendered in hushed, soft tones or bursts of DIY anger, or even provocation. As such, this selection of works embodies many of the tensions of the current moment, around questions of austerity, separating fact from fiction, challenging war and colonialism, confronting loss or memory, and bringing people together around the act of creation and its community. We invite you to discover the films, and the connections and conversations they may create when placed together in such a context.”

Two Cuckolds Go Swimming  

OPENING NIGHT - OFF TRACK

Monday, January 13 at 7 p.m. | Cinémathèque québécoise

The world is small within the confines of normalcy. But the fringe extends endlessly, merely requiring an outstretched hand that unlocks the wonders on the other side of the track.

Twilight, Park Sye-young, 17” (South Korea), International Premiere

A man and a dog walk to the tip of the mountain every evening. There is a light that shines at sunset. They are looking for it, but the sun has set, and the forest is deep.

A Man Imagined, Melanie Shatzky & Brian M. Cassidy, 62” (Canada), Quebec Premiere

This immersive documentary is a bracingly intimate and hallucinatory portrait of 67-year-old Lloyd, a man with schizophrenia surviving amidst urban detritus and decay.

Two Cuckolds Go Swimming, Winston DeGiobbi, 82” (Canada), World Premiere

When adult film star Molly Chambers (Deragh Campbell) flies to Cape Breton to visit her mom, she’s forced to examine her own attachments to home in this austere, dream-like drama.

Louis Riel, ou Le ciel touche la terre

CHRONICLES OF A DEATH FORETOLD

Tuesday, January 14 at 7 p.m. | Cinémathèque québécoise

The temporalities of death interweave candidly in this program dedicated to the grieving process: a creative opportunity for characters that confront the idea of transience with lyrical and epic forms.

Super Happy Forever, Kohei Igarashi, 94” (Japan, France), Quebec Premiere

Sano tries to find a red cap forgotten five years earlier by his ex-wife. An impeccable seaside melodrama, weaving together the dimensions of love and grief.

Louis Riel, ou Le ciel touche la terre, Matias Meyer, 83” (Canada), Canadian Premiere

Matias Meyer observes and embodies the last days of Metis leader Louis Riel, the essential figure in Canadian history, with an undeniable Bressonian touch. 

Now He Is in the Truth, Roberto Tarazona, 11” (Cuba), World Premiere

A camera wanders through the Cuban countryside where the blinding light of faith struggles to fully illuminate an evanescent peasantry.

Lost Chapters

FAMILY ALBUMS

Wednesday, January 15 at 7 p.m. | Cinéma Moderne

Can the outline of a mountain tell us about the people who live on the land? What makes up a family history? Three radical approaches to the construction of memory on screen.

Lost Chapters, Lorena Alvarado, 67” (Venezuela, US), North American Premiere

Ena returns to Venezuela and embarks on a familial search reminiscent of both the intimacy of Akerman and the labyrinthine qualities of Borges.

Merman, Ana Lungu, 85” (Romania), North American Premiere

Ana Lungu examines the male gaze through Romanian archives that capture images of women from WWII until the Revolution.

UNDR., Kamal Aljafari, 15” (Palestine, Germany), Canadian Premiere

In his companion piece to A Fidai Film, Aljafari repurposes archival footage to show a Palestinian landscape ceaselessly transformed from the sky.

Base Station

STILL LIFE

Thursday, January 16 at 7 p.m. | Cinéma Moderne 

A long hike alongside nature's refugees and admirers in which mise en scene, whether digital or analog, approaches flora as a living space, whether a vector of paranoia or a space for reverence.

Base Station, Park Sye-young and Yeon Ye-ji, 67” (South Korea), International Premiere

Two hypochondriac siblings have taken to the mountains to avoid all electromagnetic frequencies in this hypnotic lesson in claustrophobia and the evocative power of light.

Sept promenades avec Mark Brown, Pierre Creton and Vincent Barré, 104” (France), Quebec Premiere

Pierre Creton and Vincent Barré reconnect with the world of plants and flowers by following the paleo-botanist Mark Brown in his ambition to recreate a primordial forest in Normandy.

Taman-Taman (Park)

AT DUSK

Friday, January 17 at 7 p.m. | Cinéma Moderne 

A triple bill about vanishing traditions – whether poetry, dance, or baseball – that devotees practice at nightfall: so many shining secrets that the camera probes with tremendous insight.

Taman-Taman (Park), So Yo-Hen, 100” (Taiwan), North American Premiere

Two Indonesian poets meet at Tainan Park and take advantage of the day to write poetry. An astonishing experimental film on the importance of slowing down and the art of speech itself. 

Let The Red Moon Burn, Ralitsa Doncheva, 7” (Canada, Bulgaria)

A ghostly ethnographic film shot during the Zheravna Festival of Costume in Bulgaria.

Eephus, Carson Lund, 98” (US), Quebec Premiere

As their beloved small-town baseball field is about to be torn down, two dedicated teams face off for a final day of shenanigans. Carson Lund showcases the extent of his love for the game.

Spiders Web

OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

Saturday, January 18 at 4:30 p.m. | Cinéma Moderne

Nurturing flowers, raising children, or stomping on the sidewalk. A portrait of resistance as a daily occurrence, between gentle gestures and fits of rage, questing for dignity and laying root.

Fujiyama Cotton, Taku Aoyagi, 95” (Japan), International Premiere

Emerging documentarian Taku Aoyagi constructs an exemplary documentary on disability and those who care for the land and encourage us to see the world with kindness.

Mémoire fertile, Michel Khleifi, 99” (Palestine, Belgium) 

The first film shot by a Palestinian director within the borders of the West Bank, Fertile Memory captures essential images of women’s lives under apartheid.

Spiders Web, Frank Dunsten, Ben et Oliver Roberts, 65” (Canada), Quebec Premiere

Spider, a 56-years-old man from Toronto, faces new jail time for an assault he committed during a drunken night out. A delirious social drama ensues, foulmouthed and broke.

A Shrine

CLOSING NIGHT - WHERE IS MY FRIEND’S HOUSE?

Sunday, January 19 at 5 p.m. | Cinémathèque québécoise

The unexpected encounter between two bittersweet filmmakers whose singular outlook on identity, between Canada and Iran, unfolds through a disposition for wander, wonder and regret.

Universal Language, Matthew Rankin, 89” (Canada)

An alternative Canada between Tati and Kiarostami, where the common language is Farsi. Matthew Rankin’s latest surreal comedy, between hilarious drollery and bitter disillusionment.

A Shrine, Abdolreza Kahani, 82” (Canada, Iran, France), North American Premiere

A tired mechanic builds a religious shrine out of imported wood and takes the road, in this subversive DIY film offering an offbeat window into the Iranian community of Quebec.

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The full list of guests and speakers will be announced on January 6, 2025. 

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PRICES AND LISTINGS FOR TICKETS AND BADGES

Regular Ticket (double or triple bills): 25$

Individual Ticket (Saturday screenings): 15$

Regular Badge: 120$

Student & Elderly (65+) Badges: 80$

Partners

Panorama-cinéma and the Montreal Critics’ Week wish to acknowledge the financial support of the Conseil des arts de Montréal and the support of their exhibition partners, Cinéma Moderne and the Cinémathèque québécoise. The festival also wants to thank their associate partners, l’Association québécoise des critiques de cinéma (AQCC), the Goethe Institute of Montreal, MUBI Canada, the Berlin Critics’ Week (Woche der Kritik), Maisonneuve College, and Plein(s) Écran(s), as well as their presentation partners: 24 images, Liberté, Spirale and Tënk Canada.

The 1^st Montreal Critics’ Week will take place from January 13 to January 19, 2025

at the Cinémathèque québécoise and Cinéma Moderne

Information and Box Office: www.semainedelacritique.ca

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