More guests and larger audiences for a festive, diverse edition.
Montreal, Wednesday, November 28, 2018 - The 21st annual Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) closed on Sunday, November 18. This year, Quebec’s only all-documentary festival featured plenty of sold-out screenings, a festive atmosphere, lively discussions and exceptional levels of enthusiasm.
After a significant increase in attendance in 2017, the festival is pleased to announce that the 2018 edition was even more popular, registering a 6% increase in ticket sales. That higher level of popularity is also reflected in the impressive number of sold-out screenings: 48, as compared to 31 in 2017.
Among this year’s highlights were the successful retrospectives focusing on two major filmmakers who were still relatively unknown in Quebec: Brazilian director Maria Augusta Ramos and Japanese director Kazuhiro Soda. The screenings were mostly sold out, and the artists were available to discuss their work with audience members and give master classes.
Starting with a very well received opening film, Le rêve de Walaa (What Walaa Wants), the 2018 RIDM included the highly successful, award-winning international documentaries (Hale County This Morning, This Evening; Beautiful Things; Of Fathers and Sons), while the public showed obvious enthusiasm for works from Quebec and the rest of Canada. Hale County This Morning, This Evening, Dark Sunsand Memory is our Homeland, this year’s three major award winners (best international film, best Canadian film, audience award) are representative of a festival designed to showcase documentary cinema in all its forms: lyrical, poetic, political, intimate, historical.
The 21st RIDM screened 157 films from 47 countries, in a total of 187 sessions. 129 international guests participated in the festival, and, it is important to note, more than half of all filmmakers were women (81 of 158).
RIDM beyond the fest
The RIDM is pleased to extend the festival’s reach through partnerships with Encore+, La Fabrique culturelle, Festival Scope and Radio-Canada. Starting in November and throughout 2019, select films from the RIDM will be presented on these four platforms – an excellent opportunity to promote films from Québec / Canada through Festival Scope, and to showcase festival programming for francophone viewers through Encore+, La Fabrique culturelle and ICI Tou.tv. Until December 9, all the short films from the Wapikoni mobile that were screened before the films in the Canadian competition are available on La Fabrique culturelle.
DCM
Doc Circuit Montreal (DCM) took place from November 10 to 14 at the Cinémathèque québécoise and Centre Pierre-Péladeau. The five-day event welcomed more than 500 professionals. The forum included 27 talks, 14 networking activities, 6 grants, 3 specialized workshops, 3 pitch activities, one rough cut session and more than 220 guests, including 88 from abroad. The One-on-One, DCM’s marquee activity, attracted 83 decision-makers and 142 participants for 859 business meetings.
This year, DCM focused on the long-term future of professional documentary filmmaking with the return of the Producers’ Lab and activities centred on co-production, including the launch of a two-year exchange program, QC+BY DOC COPROD, which will support and develop six producers from Bavaria and Quebec. The 5th annual Talent Lab culminated in the awarding of a $10,000 support grant by Canal D and an award valued at $9,000 from the francophone division of the NFB, both for French-language projects, as well as support worth $5,000 from the Imagine 360 organization for the development of a virtual reality project. For the first time, DCM hosted the ICI RADIO CANADA PREMIÈRE Podcast Pitch activity, with a prize valued at $15,000. New international decision makers attended DCM, including representatives of Dogwoof, Taskosvki Films, Singular DTV, Tribeca Film Festival, Points North Institute, Festival international du film francophone de Namur, BAFICI, Doc Corner de Cannes, FIPADOC, FIDLab and CNC.
Thanks to the RIDM’s partners
The RIDM gratefully acknowledges the support of the following institutional, primary and associate partners who have helped make the 21st RIDM a memorable edition. Thanks to the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications, SODEC, the Secrétariat à la région métropolitaine, Telefilm Canada, the Ville de Montréal, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts de Montréal, Bell Media, Canal D, the Canada Media Fund, TV5, Télé-Québec, FACTOR, au Consulat général de France à Montréal, CSN, Radio-Canada, Planète+, Tourisme Montréal, the Université du Québec à Montréal, Concordia University, Post-Moderne, Studios Saint-Antoine, Mouvement des caisses Desjardins, PRIM, BDO, the Cinémathèque québécoise, the Quartier des Spectacles, Candlewood Suites Montréal and auberge Pomerol.
The 22nd annual RIDM will take place in November 2019.