Sofia Coppola's Priscilla among many acclaimed new films coming to Festival du Nouveau Cinéma

The Montreal Festival du Nouveau Cinéma (FNC) has unveiled the full lineup of its 52nd edition, which, from Oct. 4 to 15, invites cinephiles to celebrate the very best of new cinema. Blending a solid selection of cinema’s greatest filmmakers with emerging, groundbreaking directors, this year’s selection features 105 features from 57 countries.

In the Incontournables section, the festival, in particular, has snatched up some essential Canadian premieres, including the North American premiere of a new film by Cristi Puiu (MMXX) and Canadian premieres of new films by Todd Haynes (May December), Claire Simon (Our Body), Hong Sangsoo (In Our Day) and Nanni Moretti (Il sol dell’avvenire). The rest of the showcase features some of the most critically acclaimed films of 2023, including Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, The Zone of Interest, Anatomy of a Fall, Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World and Evil Does Not Exist (among others).

This year’s festival will launch with a special screening of Trần Anh Hùng’s The Pot Au Feu (recently renamed The Taste of Things in English), a Canadian premiere of the film that picked up the best director prize at Cannes. Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel star in this 19th-century romance between cooks. The festival will close with The Animal Kingdom, directed by Thomas Cailley, an adventure between a father and his son in a world where some humans have started mutating into other animal species.

Among this year’s biggest guests are the two honorees of the Louves d’honneur: Bertrand Bonello (the festival will also mount a complete retrospective of his work) and Catherine Breillat. Both will present their new films, The Beast and Last Summer, as well as masterclasses.

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There are incredible highlights across the whole lineup. Some features worth highlighting include films in the international competition (How to Have Sex, The Settlers, The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed); national competition (Days of Happiness, Seagrass, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person), the Temps Ø program (Conann, Shadow of Fire, Mars Express), “The New Alchemists” (Allensworth, Music and The Human Surge 3) and International Panorama (#Mito, Old Oak, Samsara) among many, many more.

As always, the festival will include several special screenings and retrospectives. This year, in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Enter the Dragon, they’re doing a “Brucesploitation” series including a new documentary from David Gregory. There will also be an overnight screening of all the Mad Max films, the previously mentioned Bertrand Bonello retro, a retrospective of the short films of Ariane Louis-Seize, as well as special screenings of Ghosts… of the Civil Dead and Rossellini’s Voyage to Italy.

The festival will also feature a world-class selection of short films, the P’tits Loups section, a lineup of movies geared towards kids and the third edition of the festival’s industry market, Nouveau Marché. The festival’s celebrated parties and other events will take place every day at l’Agora in UQAM’s Cœur des sciences.

Screenings will take place at the Cinéma Impérial, Cineplex Odéon Quartier Latin, Cinéma du Parc, Cinéma du Musée, Cinémathèque Québécoise and Cinéma Moderne. ■

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For on the 2023 edition of the Montreal Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, please visit the FNC website.

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