Million Dollar Crocodile to open 36th Montreal World Film Festival

Lisheng Lin’s Million Dollar Crocodile [pictured], reportedly China’s first-ever monster movie, will open the 36th edition of the Montreal World Film Festival (MWFF), which runs Aug 23-Sept 3.

Lin will be in attendance in Montreal and his film is one of 432 films showing at the festival, of which 212 are feature length with 110 world or international premieres. Million Dollar Crocodile plays as part of MWFF’s World Greats, which also includes screenings of the likes of Izuru Narushima’s Admiral Yamamoto, the anthology 7 Days In Havana and James Huth’s Happiness Never Comes Alone. Huth’s romantic comedy closes the festival.

Greta Scacchi heads the festival’s jury for its World Competition with Claude Gagnon’s Canada-Japan co-production Karakara, Patricia Ferreira’s The Wild Ones and Safy Nebbou’s Bad Seeds among the films competing for the top prize.

Other sections at this year’s edition include a First Films World Competition - the likes of Lars-Gunnar Lotz’s Shifting The Blame, Babek Aliassa’s Halal Butcher Shop and Chris Swanton’s Metamorphosis are in competition - and Documentaries of the World, featuring Dan Shannon’s Sweet 16, Laurent Bouzereau’s Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir and Ann Fessler’s A Girl Like Her, among others.

China Film Business Week will be held during the festival from Aug 27-31, centred around four large groups including China Movie Channel and China Film Group. The week will see them participate in co-production projects, visit Montreal film studios and join in networking sessions with producers, distributors and broadcasters.

This year’s MWFF will also see German director Volker Schlöndorff give a master class. “Volker Schlöndorff is one of key members of the New German Cinema, that group of young filmmakers who, with talent, imagination and a daring choice of subjects, radically changed German cinema,” commented MWFF President Serge Losique. “It is a great privilege to be hosting his master class in Montreal.”

The festival will honour founder of Panavision Mel Hoppenheim with its Grand Prize of the Americas. “There are few men in our cinema with the Mel Hoppenheim’s stature,” said Losique. “He is among the men most responsible for the development of Quebec and Canadian film industries. As a builder and entrepreneur but also as a generous philanthropist, Mel was a prime mover in the establishment of a true domestic film industry.”

For the full lineup, visit MWFF’s website.