MONTREAL - This year's Montreal World Film Festival will include 29 Canadian premieres, 43 North American premieres and works from 78 countries, including the official film of the Beijing 2008 Olympics and a documentary that explores sovereignty in Quebec and around the world.

The festival, which favours more eclectic fare than the more Hollywood-oriented Toronto International Film Festival, runs from Aug. 27 to Sept. 7.

Among the notable foreign films in Montreal will be "L'Enfance d'Lcare," the last film by Guillaume Depardieu, the son of French film legend Gerard Depardieu.

Guillaume Depardieu died last year at the age of 37 from pneumonia, which he contracted while filming the movie in Romania.

Among the prominent documentaries will be "The Everlasting Flame Beijing 2008" directed by Gu Jun about last year's Summer Games, and "Questions nationales," which looks at the sovereignty movements in Quebec, Scotland and Catalonia.

Daniele Cauchard, the general manager of the film festival, would not be pinned down when asked if there was anything that specifically excited her in this year's program.

"It's difficult to say because we have different sections, so every year it's a new festival with a new selection so the highlight is that new selection that we have every year."

When pressed further, she chirped: "We are passionate about everything, every one."

Organizers also announced they'll be launching a new digital tool to help connect industry movers and shakers who want to make movies.

"It's going to be for sales, for marketing, for co-production, for seminars - for anything that you can think of that is related to production," said Gilles Beriault, who heads the festival's annual Montreal International Film Market, a meeting of industry insiders.

"Right now we're just putting every piece together, we're working with different software companies to take what's available now and format it for us."

Festival organizers cackled when they were asked if they'd spent the $445,000 announced recently for the event under the Marquee Tourism Events Program.

The federal program is investing $100 million over two years to help events across Canada.

"They didn't give it to us yet," Cauchard said Tuesday, explaining that the money is for new projects and those still have to be planned.

"We will be using it, but we haven't received it yet."

The money, announced by the Conservative government on the heels of similar funding for the Montreal International Jazz Festival and the Just for Laughs comedy festival, marked a sweetening of relations between the film festival and Ottawa.

Festival president Serge Losique had filed a $2.5-million lawsuit against the Crown corporation Telefilm Canada, after it yanked its $1 million in funding from the festival in 2005, alleging it had damaged the festival's reputation.

The Telefilm move came as a good chunk of city and provincial funding was also withdrawn amid widespread criticism of the way the event was run.

The money instead went to the New Montreal FilmFest, organized by L'Equipe Spectra, the powerhouse behind the Montreal International Jazz Festival.

But that event folded after one outing in the fall of 2005, failing to strike a chord with film buffs. It ran up a $1.7-million deficit.

Losique and his crew went ahead and staged a stripped-down version of their festival and have continued to do so.