Montreal International Black Film Festival (16)

Festival start: 30 September 2020      Festival end: 04 October 2020

The biggest Black Film Festival in Canada

IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ CAREFULLY THE RULES. SEND ONLY FILMS THAT AS A SUBJECT ABOUT BLACK REALITIES OR WITH BLACK ACTOR AS MAIN CHARACTERS.

The goal of the Montreal International Black Film Festival (MIBFF) is to bring audiences the most beautiful and the most amazing new Black films, while creating a space to debate major cultural, social and socio-economic issues. The MIBFF wants to promote a different kind of cinema, cinema that hails from here and from abroad and that does not necessarily have the opportunity to grace the big screen, groundbreaking cinema that moves us, that raises awareness and that takes us all by surprise. The MIBFF wants to deal with issues and present works that raise questions, that provoke, that make us smile, that leave us perplexed, that shock us...

Mission

The MIBFF is a dynamic, innovative and audacious festival whose ambition is to promote the development of the independent film industry and to showcase more films on the realities of Blacks from around the world. It wants to take a fresh, new look at black cinema from the four corners of the globe!!!

Le FIFBM...

supports the creative process
The MIBFF is always on the lookout for new talent and is focused on serving as a springboard for the creative process. This is why it grants awards, gives workshops, and organizes debate conferences and networking events for all participating professionals.

diversifies the film offering in Canada
The MIBFF wants to diversify the film offering in Canada, thereby helping independent filmmakers conquer new audiences and giving the public access to a wider variety of quality works from both Canadian and foreign filmmakerss.

showcases independent films
The MIBFF aims to showcase independent films from Canada and abroad that deal with the realities of black people. By virtue of the quality of the films screened, the number of countries represented, its growing moviegoer base, the interest of the public and of the artistic community in the Festival, its international media coverage, its networking activities, its bilingualism (French and English) and its geographic position (Montreal), the MIBFF can boast being the largest festival in Canada dedicated entirely to screening films on the realities of blacks from the four corners of the globe.

holds activities all year long
The MIBFF wants to give the public access to Canadian and foreign filmmakers and their works all year long through film screenings, debates, round tables, workshops, etc., with an eye to facilitating the exchange of ideas, broadening people’s knowledge, bringing new films to the public and helping viewers get a better understanding of these films. The Festival also wants to help filmmakers conquer new audiences.

operates in French and in English
The MIBFF screens films and holds activities in the two official languages of Canada: English and French. Its documents, promotional and interpretative materials are also bilingual. However, in certain cases, some films are presented in either English or French only.

Each year a trophy made by a local glass artist is given to best film in each categories including trophies for Humanitarian award, Career achievement award and Life time achievement award.

In the past celebrities like Harry Belafonte, Stedman Graham, Dany Glover, Spike Lee, Martin Luther king 111 were in Montreal to accept there award.

FESTIVAL'S RULES AND REGULATIONS

I- GOAL
The goal of the Montreal International Black Film Festival (previously known as the Montreal Haitian Film Festival) is to: promote independent author’s films from Canada and around the world, promote cultural and cinematographic diversity within Quebec and Canada, promote Black cinema and stimulate the development of quality cinema, discover and encourage new talent, encourage meetings between Black filmmakers and professionals working in the film industry from here and abroad, cultivate opportunities for North-South co-productions, encourage the development of the Black Film Industry here and abroad.

II- SELECTION
The Selection Committee selects and invites the films that will be presented in the Competition, Out-of-Competition, Retrospective, or other categories…

Only films that meet the following criteria may be selected and invited to be part of the Official Selection:

Must have been made in the 24 months preceding the Festival.

Must not have previously been distributed and/or released in theatres (unless an exception is made by the festival).
Priority will be given to previously unreleased works.

Must not have been broadcast on television or on the Internet.

Must not have been released on the market on DVD, VOD or Blu-Ray.

Must respect the goal of the Festival as defined in Paragraph I (GOAL).

III- PROGRAM
The Montreal International Black Film Festival will include the following categories:

Feature films (fiction)
Documentaries
Retrospectives
Short Films
Tribute

IV- AGREEMENT
Submitting or sending a film to the Festival implies that the producers or their representatives agree to these rules and regulations.

FILMS THAT HAVE BEEN REGISTERED AND SELECTED MAY NOT BE WITHDRAWN FROM THE FESTIVAL.

The Executive Management of the Festival has the power to settle any cases that are not covered under these rules and regulations.

Once selected, no film may be withdrawn from the program during the Festival.

Invited films may only be shown in the Festival’s theatres until the Festival has officially closed.

V- TRIBUTE
By invitation only, this section is dedicated to the great men and women of cinema: Screenwriters, directors, actors, producers, directors of photography, composers, diversity on screen allies etc.

VI- EXCLUSIONS
Industrial, advertising or educational films are not eligible for any of the categories (competitive or non-competitive). Racist, pornographic and political propaganda films, as well as films based on gratuitous violence, are not eligible.

VII- JURY
The Selection Committee refers to the President and to the other members that compose the Jury for each film category.

The President of the Festival, the Programming Director of the MIBFF and/or a designated representative of the Festival may attend Jury deliberations but may take no part in the voting.

Jury members may in no way be associated with a film that has been entered in the competition. The following persons may not sit on the Jury: the President of the Festival (of the Fabienne Colas Foundation), an organizing member of the Festival, or anyone who has been involved in producing, distributing or releasing a film in competition.

VIII- PROMOTION AND PUBLICATION OF AWARDS
Films selected to be part of the Official Selection agree to use the “Official Selection” logo of the Montreal International Black Film Festival in all their publicity.

By participating in the Festival, the award winners and distribution companies agree to use the Montreal International Black Film Festival name or logo, as well as the award they received, in all their promotions and advertisements (posters, ads, etc.).

IX- DEADLINE
The deadlines for registering films are available on the Festival’s Festhome page.
Registration, payment and film screener link must be completed online through Festhome.

X- AUTHORITY
The President and Founder of the Festival has the authority to settle any cases not covered under these rules and regulations.

Submitting a film does not mean that it will automatically be selected for participation in the upcoming edition of the Montreal International Black Film Festival. Only those films selected by the Selection Committee shall be screened.

Participation in the Montreal International Black Film Festival means you agree to abide by the aforementioned rules and regulations and respect the pre-selection conditions.

Should there be a dispute in the interpretation of any of these rules and regulations, the original French text will prevail.

These rules and regulations apply to all Official Selection categories (Competition, Out-of-Competition, Special programming, Retrospectives, Invited films, other categories, etc).