2014 Festival du nouveau cinéma, Oct 8–19

Tonight, the 43rd edition of Montreal's Festival du nouveau cinéma kicks off with a screening of Philippe Falardeau’s The Good Lie at Théâtre de Maisonneuve. It stars Reese Witherspoon, Corey Stoll, Arnold Oceng, Ger Duany, Emmanuel Jal and Kuoth Wiel. The film tells the real-life story of an American woman who helps four Sudanese refugees who have won a lottery to be relocated to the United States. The film will be preceded by a screening of the short film Mynarski Death Plummet by Montreal's Matthew Rankin.

After the screening, there will be an opening night party at the Agora Hydro-Québec in UQAM’s Cœur des Sciences, which serves as the Festival headquarters. That is also where the festival holds its parties each subsequent night. The parties are free and open to the public.

Other highlights of the festival include works by other Quebeckers such as Maxime Giroux’s Félix and Meira, Rodrigue Jean’s Love in the Time of Civil War, The Price we Pay by Harold Crooks, In Her Place by Albert Shin, and Wild by Jean-Marc Vallée. Additional highlights include David Cronenberg's Maps to the Stars, Boychoir by François Girard, Nightcrawler by Dan Gilroy, and The Tale of Princess Kaguya by Isao Takahata. The closing film will is the documentary The Salt of the Earth (Le sel de la terre) by Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado.

43rd Festival du nouveau cinéma announces opening and closing films

The Festival du nouveau cinéma (FNC) is pleased to announce that The Good Lie (U.S.), directed by Philippe Falardeau, will kick off its 43rd edition, to be held in Montreal from October 8 to 19. The film will be preceded by Matthew Rankin’s short Mynarski Death Plummet (Quebec/Canada). The documentary feature The Salt of the Earth (Brazil/Italy/France), co-directed by Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, will close the Festival on October 18.

The much-anticipated The Good Lie from director Philippe Falardeau (Monsieur Lazhar, FNC 2011 closing film; Congorama, FNC 2006 opening film) will mark the opening of the 43rd edition on Wednesday, October 8, at the Théâtre Maisonneuve of Place des Arts. The director’s first American feature follows refugees of Sudan’s civil war, universally known as “The Lost Boys,” as they struggle to forge new lives in America. The Good Lie stars Reese Witherspoon, Corey Stoll and Sudanese actors Arnold Oceng, Ger Duany, Emmanuel Jal and Kuoth Wiel, in a story of survival and triumph. The film will open in select theatres in Quebec later in October.

The screening will open with Matthew Rankin’s short film Mynarski Death Plummet, a visually surreal, phantasmagorical work tracking the final moments in the life of Andrew Mynarski, a World War II hero from Winnipeg.