2010 Festival des Films du Monde (World Film Festival), Aug 26-Sept 6

Louis Bélanger's Route 132

The 2010 Festival des Films du Monde (FFM), also known as the Montreal World Film Festival, takes place annually in advance of the Toronto International Film Festival. This year, the festival runs from August 26 to September 6. Although less of an industry draw, FFM is a strong public festival and in some ways it is the larger film festival - this year it screens 430 films from 80 countries (277 of them are features), whereas TIFF will screen less than 300 films from around 60 countries.  

The latest film by Montreal filmmaker Louis Bélanger, Route 132, will open the festival, while Bertrand Tavernier's La Princesse de Montpensier (The Princess of Montpensier) will be the festival closing gala. In between, the festival will also screen retrospective tributes of French actress Nathalie Baye, Italian actress Stefania Sandrelli and Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, the president of last year's jury. This year's jury president Danish filmmaker Bille August heads a group of cineastes from five continents: Irene Bignardi, Anne-Marie Cadieux, Marwan Hamed, Igor Minaev, Édouard Molinaro and Lijung Tang. The renowned French actor Gerard Depardieu will conduct a master class on cinema. As always, they will have free outdoor screenings at the Place des Festivals.

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The World Competition lineup for the 2010 Festival des Films du Monde:

Box – The Hakamada Case, Banmei Takahashi (Japan)

The Day I Was Not Born, Florian Cossen (Germany)

From Childhood, Carlos Carrera (Mexico)

From the Waist On, Gianfrancesco Lazotti (Italy)

The Land of the Astronauts, Carl Colpaert (USA)

Limbo, Maria Sødahl (Norway)

Lost Heritage, Christian Lara (France)

Meeting With an Angel, Sophie de Daruvar and Yves Thomas (France)

The Murder Farm, Bettina Oberli (Germany)

Nannerl, Mozart’s Sister, René Féret (France)

Oxygen, Hans Van Nuffel (The Netherlands)

Route 132, Louis Bélanger (Canada)

Silence Lies, Julie Hivon (Canada)

Sword of Desperation, Hideyuki Hirayama (Japan)

Tête de turc, Pascal Elbé (France)

Three-Way Wedding, Jacques Doillon (France)

Truce, Svetlana Proskurina (Russia)

Twelve Thirty, Jeff Lipsky (USA)

Venice, Jakub Kolski (Poland)

Villain, Lee Sang-il (Japan)
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Full list of Canadian films at the 2010 Festival des Films du Monde:

World Competition
Route 132* - Louis Bélanger
Silence Lies (Tromper le silence)* – Julie Hivon

First Films World Competition
The Neighbor (Hamseyeh) – Naghmeh Shirkhan (coproduction with U.S.A.)

Focus on World Cinema
I Heart Regina – n/a
I Was Once Told – Aliaa Khachouck
Mary – Andrey Petrusha
New Year – Philip Borg

Documentaries of the World
Turning 32 (Avoir 32 ans) – Robbie Hart and Luc Côté
Corpus – Connie Diletti
Children of Soldiers (Enfants de soldats) – Claire Corriveau
Funeral Season (La saison des funérailles) – Matthew Lancit (coproduction with Cameroun)
Black Hands (Les mains noires) – Tetchena Bellange
Montréal, 31 fragments d’urbanité – Jean Tessier
The Fall of Womenland – He Xiaodan
The Hidden Face of Suicide – Yehudit Silverman

Tributes
The Plouffe Family (Les Plouffe)* – Gilles Carle

Student Film Festival
Stations – Onur Karaman
Tais-toi, Je gère – Wyatt Tessari and Alexandre Boivin

http://www.ffm-montreal.org/