Monday, September 1-------After a 10 day marathon of world cinema, the Montreal World Film Festival concluded this evening with its gala Awards Ceremony and a screening of the French/Swiss/Belgian film Home, starring Isabelle Huppert. While French-language films are de rigeur in this French speaking city, the Festival’s highest honor went to a Japanese film. The Grand Prix des Ameriques, announced from the stage of the Theater Maisonneuve by Jury President (and Oscar nominated American directo...

Monday, September 1--------The Montreal World Film Festival closes this evening with the North American Premiere screening of Home, the newest film from French/Swiss director Ursula Meier. The film will screen at the Theatre Maisonneuve following the announcement of the juried awards. Home, which had its world premiere at the Cannes Critics Week, is a Franco-Swiss-Belgian co-production, starring Isabelle Huppert and Olivier Gourmet as a husband and wife whose family's peaceful existence in an...

Sunday, August 31-------The Montreal World Film Festival is saluting the fine work done by the Kawakita Memorial Film Institute, a Japanese organization that promotes both classic and contemporary Japanese films, by showcasing three classic Japanese films here. The Film Institute was founded by Madame Kashiko Kawakita to promote Japanese cinema abroad. The Institute's mission in the past 35 years has been to collect and protect films and other items of film heritage and to make them available to...

Saturday, August 30------The Montreal World Film Festival hosted the World Premiere last evening of Scottish filmmaker Steven Lewis Simpson’s latest film REZ BOMB. This marks the director's third feature in a row to World Premiere at the Festival, with previous showings of THE TICKING MAN (2003) and its sequel RETRIBUTION (2005).While his previous films were set in his native Scotland, REZ BOMB provides quite a contrast. The story is set on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota...

 Saturday, August 30------French actress Isabelle Huppert received a special Award yesterday by the Montreal World Film Festival for her unique contribution to French and world cinema. One of the great actresses of her generation, Huppert is also being honored with special screenings of several of her films, including the French films VIOLETTE NOZIERE, MADAME BOVARY and L'IVRESSE DU POUVOIR, all directed by her muse, iconic French film director Claude Chabrol and the Western epic HEAVEN'S GA...

 Wednesday, August 27------Bavaria has been a cinema stronghold in Germany for over 100 years. While many German film companies and filmmakers have migrated to Berlin in the last decade, Munich still remains the main hub for the German film industry. Directors like Doris Dorrie and Sonke Wortmann have been famous Bavarian film names for the last few decades. In recent years, Bavarian films have won innumberable prizes at home and abroad, including Oscars for Florian Gallenberger (Quero ser), Ca...

Tuesday, August 25------Calling himself "one of the last of the Hollywood movie stars", the Montreal World Film Festival welcomed iconic actor Tony Curtis this past weekend. Entering the press conference in a wheel chair and looking a bit puffy, the 79 year old actor, once hailed as the most beautiful face in movies, was still remarkably spry and witty, with a voice that revealed his early roots as a street tough in New York City. Curtis was in Montreal to accept the Prix des Ameriques...

 by Sandy Mandelberger, Montreal FF Dailies Editor Wednesday, August 20-------Mark Rydell, an Academy Award-nominated director, a classically trained actor, and an accomplished jazz pianist, will serve as the President of the Jury at the Montreal World Film Festival, which kicks off a twelve day marathon of international cinema this coming Thursday.Throughout his multi-hyphenated career, Rydell's films have received twenty-six Oscar nominations. Born in the Bronx, he studied jazz at the Jui...

 by Sandy Mandelberger, Montreal FF Dailies Editor Monday, August 18------If there ever was a love affair between cities, the intimate relationship between Paris and Montreal would be a novel unto itself. Both cities are proud standard bearers for the French language and French culture, although the Montrealers have added a Quebec twist to the traditional patrimonie.The bonds are further evidenced by the announcement of the Opening Night Film for this year's Montreal World Film Festival. The 3...