Festival du nouveau cinéma


The Festival du nouveau cinéma or FNC is an annual independent film festival held in Montreal and features independent films from around the world. Over 160,000 people attend the festival each year. It's the oldest film festival of Canada.
The festival is an Academy Award qualifying festival for short films.

History

Founded in 1971, the Festival welcomes during twelve days Quebec, Canadian and international filmmakers in a friendly atmosphere where exchanges between industry professionals and the grand public is encouraged.
Throughout the years, the public has discovered filmmakers like François Girard, Atom Egoyan, Denis Villeneuve, Guy Maddin, Léa Pool, Jim Jarmusch, Abbas Kiarostami, Spike Lee, Wim Wenders, Raymond Depardon, Jane Campion, Pedro Almodóvar, Wong Kar-wai, Peter Greenaway, Chantal Akerman and Marguerite Duras.

Sections

The festival was founded in 1971 by Claude Chamberlan and Dimitri Eipidès. The festival went through several name changes.
In 2004 Daniel Langlois, director of FNC since 1999, left the organization to begin the Festival International de Films de Montréal, which was initiated and created with the support of SODEC and Telefilm Canada after a dispute between these Canadian government sponsors and the Montreal World Film Festival.
Langlois initially programmed the Festival International de Films de Montréal to coincide with the Montreal Festival of New Cinema and New Media. According to press reports pertaining to the controversy between the Montreal World Film Festival and the New Montreal FilmFest, Langlois planned to merge the two festivals, but failed to do so when the FCMM refused any such merger. The dates for the inaugural New Montreal FilmFest were ultimately changed to avoid conflicting with the dates of the FCMM.
In 2005, both the FNC and the New Montreal FilmFest came under new management. In early 2006, the New Montreal FilmFest folded after the failure of its inaugural festival. Both the FNC and the Montreal World Film Festival continue to exist.