It’s film festival time again in Montreal, but don’t tell that to any U.S. directors

The widely hyped inaugural New Montreal FilmFest got under way Sunday, aiming to return the city to the movie spotlight amid the decade- long decline of the rival Montreal World Film Festival. Organizers greeted guests on the red carpet for the premiere of French director Cedric Klapisch’s Les poupées russes The Russian ( Dolls). The FilmFest, set to run through Sept. 25, will screen a total of 184 films, closing with Tony Scott’s Domino, the lone U.S. film in the 22- strong film competition. Having acquired few U.S. independent films that otherwise went to Toronto or Venice, chief programmer Moritz de Hadeln, a veteran of the Berlin and Venice festivals, is relying on mostly Canadian, European, Latin American and Asian fare.