The Montreal World FilmFestival will pay tribute to veteran German actor Bruno Ganz. The star of suchfilms as Oliver Hirschbiegel's Downfall and Silvio Soldini's Bread And Tulips will be on hand to celebrate the MWFF's 30thanniversary. The festival will present the North American premiere of his latest film, Fredi M. Murer's Vitus,a Panorama Special title at Berlinearlier this year.

A favoured player of manyinternational auteurs, with a career spanning 80 films and televisionproductions, Ganz has featured in three films by Wim Wenders, The AmericanFriend, Wings Of Desire and Faraway, So Close!, as well as Werner Herzog's Nosferatu, Eric Rohmer's The Marquise Of O, Jeanne Moreau's Lumiere, Mauro Bolognini's Lady Of The Camelias, Volker Schlondorff's False Witness, Alain Tanner's In The White City, Gillian Armstrong's The Last Days Of Chez Nous and Theo Angelopoulos' Eternity And A Day.

His performance in BreadAnd Tulips garnered the Swiss Filmprize for Best Actor in 2001. His reputation extends to the theatre, where hisinterpretations of Hamlet and Macbeth have been hailed as masterful.

Ganz has selected four filmshe considers landmarks in his career for screening during the event, BreadAnd Tulips, Reinhard Hauff's KnifeIn The Head, Downfall and Kurt Gloor's The Inventor.

The 30th MWFFruns from Aug 24 to Sept 4, 2006.