From the perspective of festival organizers, it made sense to highlight Blade Runner 2049, starring Ryan Gosling, in a city where parts of it were made. Rodeo FX, a Montreal visual-effects studio, had about 80 people working on Blade Runner 2049.Stephen Vaughan
Nicolas Girard Deltruc has 43 world premieres on his list for this year's Festival du nouveau cinéma, and the one that pleases him most is the one that other festivals couldn't get: Blade Runner 2049.
Montreal's bilingual film jamboree opens its 46th edition tonight with a screening of Denis Villeneuve's blockbuster sequel, two days before the film's general release.
"It was very complicated," Girard Deltruc said of the negotiations to get the film that the Toronto International Film Festival tried and failed to secure. "Warner [Bros.] said, 'We don't need to be in a festival.' But we have shown all of Denis's films from the start, and he said it was very important to show the film at this festival in Montreal."
It also made sense to highlight the film in a city where parts of it were made, he said. Rodeo FX, a Montreal visual-effects studio, had about 80 people working on Blade Runner 2049.
For Girard Deltruc, the coup is not just about having an unusually splashy gala at a festival mainly devoted to independent and experimental work. It also shows where the FNC fits in Montreal and in the global film scene.
"It's a recognition of our importance, after three years of more visibility internationally," he said. "Warner listened to Denis, but they also believed we are well-enough organized to handle this event.
"We have also proved we are the main festival in Montreal. This confirms it."
The latter point hardly seems in need of reinforcement. The FNC has for some years looked healthier and more vigorous than its tumultuous rival, the Montreal World Film Festival.
Last year, for example, more than half of the MWFF's employees quit the event two days before opening day, citing in an open letter its "inability … to honour contracts." The next day, Cineplex withdrew all of its screens from the festival's schedule.
The FNC is keen to put as much daylight as possible between itself and its competitor, whose behind-scenes drama has fostered what Girard Deltruc called a climate of uncertainty about Montreal on the global scene. It's not unusual, he said, to run into an international player who knows there have been issues about paying employees and exhibitors, but isn't sure which Montreal festival was involved.
This year's FNC includes new films by established directors such as Jane Campion and Todd Haynes, and also a section devoted to 18 up-and-coming directors from Quebec and the rest of Canada. FNC 2017 features several films feted at the most recent Cannes Film Festival, but also a competitive section reserved for experimental works by the likes of Austrian cineaste Gustav Deutsch and Canadian Mike Hoolboom.
There will be showcase screenings of works by Belgian filmmaking duo Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani (makers of the evocatively titled Let the Corpses Tan) and the late Japanese director Seijun Suzuki (whose 1966 film Tokyo Drifter was a game changer), but also of the young Canadian auteur Sofia Bohdanowicz. The festival closes on Oct. 15 with a screening of Loving Vincent, a partly hand-painted film about the last days of Vincent van Gogh.
Public showings of films on screens are the core of the FNC, but the festival invests more every year in virtual reality and augmented reality. "The important thing for us is images in movement, however you show or receive them," Girard Deltruc said.
This year, the festival will offer free experiences of VR and AR at the Complexe Desjardins, the large mall opposite Place des Arts. "We discovered that there are a lot of people who have heard about VR but have never tried it," Girard Deltruc said, either because it was expensive or inaccessible.
"The most important thing is the experience, and the collective event," he said. That goes for everything in the festival, on the big screen or the small one inches from your face.
Festival du nouveau cinéma runs at various Montreal venues from Oct. 4 through Oct. 15.