Montreal juggles three fests.

The establishment of a new major international film gathering in Canada has caused quite a melee. Le Festival International de Films de Montreal (also called the New Montreal FilmFest), will hold its inaugural edition October 12-23, 2005 in the Latin Quarter. The Fest is meant to replace the 28-year-old Montreal World Film Festival (MWFF), which has been experiencing a fall-out with the city, province and federal officials in recent years. However, MWFF's president, Serge Losique, has defiantly defended his festival and announced dates for next year's festival, to take place August 25-September 5.

The L'Equipe Spectra-led Le Festival International de Films de Montreal was originally created to complement Montreal's Le Festival du Nouveau Cinema. However, in a recent twist, Daniel Langlois, president of Le Festival du Nouveau Cinema, announced his resignation as a result of a conflict between his festival and the Spectra event. Langlois is one of the city's most dynamic entrepreneurs, and his company, the Daniel Langlois Foundation, has contributed C$1.5 million to the Nouveau festival over the last seven years. Le Festival du Nouveau Cinema's executive director, Sheila de La Varende, who was leading the negotiations with the Spectra group behind the Le Festival International de Films de Montreal, has also now resigned from the Nouveau festival.

The chances of the two festivals working in tandem are said to have evaporated once Spectra president Alain Simard announced plans to hold this year's Le Festival International de Films de Montreal, at almost exactly the same time as Le Festival du Nouveau Cinema (which is scheduled for October 13-23). In a statement, Claude Chamberlan, the only remaining top executive at the Nouveau, urged the Spectra festival to change dates. Moritz de Hadeln, the recently appointed head of the Le Festival International de Films de Montreal, responded that they should be able to figure out a way to work through the problems. He has hinted at the possibility of changing his festival's dates in the future but has assured the public that, for this year at least, the dates will stay as scheduled.

As it stands, Montreal now has three competing festivals (the third being the Montreal World Film Festival, which the New Montreal FilmFest is meant to replace); two of which will occur at exactly the same time and appear to be engaged in a real war.