Most festivals have a double goal; to preview the best of recent cinema and to discover what will be the cinema of tomorrow. Inevitably there is also a third goal -- to bypass the market system in order to give those films which would never show on commercial screens a chance to be seen.

At Cannes as in Montreal, the competition’s goal is to honour the cinema’s great names and to confirm those films that tend to perfection, even if this is rarely achieved. The Critics’ Week has given itself as it sole objective to insure that the breeding ground is always fertile. We present only first or second features (as well as shorts) in a spirit of exploration, always looking for something different. Regardless of country of origin, budget, the presence of stars, all those things so important for a film’s promotion. Critics have the unique privilege of being asked only to handle words. It’s their weakness. Criticism is only a small drop of aesthetic spirit caught in the swift current of artistic creation. Which is also it’s strength. Abbas Kiarostami and Shohei Imamura would never have won the Palm d’or at Cannes this year had the critics not trumpeted their talent over the years. Without the critics, there would long since not have been any films by Kiarostami or Imamura.

So it is in the bastion of resistance to fashion and money that film criticism defends, the Semaine internationale de la critique fran�aise makes its stand. The critics strive to affirm originality, spotlight those films and particularly their directors, who will become familiar names in the future. And, if you will excuse the self-compliment, we haven’t been too often wrong if one looks at the list of filmmakers we have promoted since 1962.

So it is with joy that we now see these films gain a second audience and therefore a second chance, within the framework of the Montreal World Film Festival, itself a bastion of resistance against the thirty or so films each year that monopolize the screens worldwide. The Critics’ Week had already been shown at the MWFF in 1991. We remember the experience fondly. We have no doubt that this new rendezvous will bring similar rewards. We have a lot to share.

Jean Roy

D�l�gu� g�n�ral