Cultural events company Spectra, which also runs the city’s popular jazz festival, sent out a news release late Friday pronouncing dead the festival that debuted in October 2005. The New Montreal Film Festival will not be returning after a disastrous inaugural year, the festival’s organizer announced. The New Montreal FilmFest was created with the support of Telefilm Canada and the Quebec cultural agency, SODEC, which had pulled funding from the Montreal World Film Festival run by Serge Losique. Government officials accused Losique of not being transparent enough about his festival’ s use of public funds. Spectra officials had sought to merge with a rival festival, the Festival du Nouveau Cinema, which turned down the offer. The 35-year-old Festival du Nouveau Cinema is smaller but highly regarded. Losique, in turn, sued Telefilm for $2.5 million and vowed to continue his festival without government funding. FilmFest officials decided to concentrate on francophone films, avoiding the Hollywood focus of the Toronto International Film Festival and the world cinema of Losique’s festival. Telefilm revealed that FilmFest lost $850,000, spurring Losique to call for a public inquiry into the “resounding and humiliating failure” of the Montreal Film Festival.

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