2023-12-13 01:41:15
The announced closure of the legendary Imperial Cinema might jeopardize the next edition of Cinemania, worries the general director of this film festival, one of the most popular in town. Without increased financial support from Ottawa, the legendary venue will have to close its doors on January 31 following the withdrawal of Quebecor, its main funder.
The Quebec Minister of Culture, Mathieu Lacombe, denounces “the absence of the federal government in a file of this importance”. Ottawa has agreed to subsidize the Imperial cinema restoration plan to the tune of one million dollars over two years from 2025-2026. But this aid is considered clearly insufficient by Quebecor, which has financially supported this establishment for more than six years. Pierre Karl Péladeau’s company announced Monday that without the desired public funds, it will stop supporting the needs of the hall at the end of next month, which will automatically lead to its closure.
“Let us not forget that this room still hosts today several of the largest film festivals in Quebec and Canada,” Minister Lacombe said in writing, calling on the federal government.
The last affordable room
Among these festivals is Cinemania, which presents French-speaking films from all over the world each year and whose 30th edition is planned for 2024. During the last edition of the event, in November, the Imperial hosted 53 screenings , of which 40 were sold out. This room with more than 800 seats is one of the only ones of this size in Montreal that remains affordable for festivals like Cinemania.
“If the Imperial closes, I don’t know what we’re going to do, because there aren’t many theaters that show films in Montreal anymore. There would be the Maisonneuve theater, but it’s much too expensive. The good thing regarding Imperial is that the prices have remained affordable. Otherwise, there are much, much smaller theaters, like the Cinematheque or the Museum cinema, but we don’t want to have a reduced 30th edition when we are in full growth,” explains the general director. by Cinemania, Guilhem Caillard.
Mr. Caillard wholeheartedly hopes that the federal government and Quebecor can come to an agreement to save the Imperial Cinema and thus ensure the sustainability of its festival as we know it. “The Imperial has been the parent company of Cinemania since 2006. It is a unique heritage place which is at the heart of our identity. We don’t want to go anywhere else,” he emphasizes.
In addition to Cinemania, the Impérial cinema is currently used at several other festivals, including Présence indigenous, the Festival du nouveau cinéma and the Rencontres nationaux du documentary de Montréal.
Grant application
Quebecor has been financing the Imperial since 2017. That year, the legendary theater came close to closing under the weight of debts contracted by the founder of the Montreal World Film Festival, Serge Losique, who directs the organization without profit-making company running the place.
Since saving the room at the last minute, Pierre Karl Péladeau’s company has, according to her, injected $8.5 million to maintain its activities. Quebecor now hoped to restore this heritage building built in 1913 to make it a room for all artistic disciplines.
A first grant request of around $7 million was made in 2020 from the Department of Canadian Heritage. “There followed a succession of meetings, refusals and re-evaluation of files to arrive at a proposal […] million in 2025-2026, which is clearly insufficient to complete the financing model of the renovation plan,” Quebecor reiterated on Tuesday.
How much in private funds?
The Legault government had agreed to pay $5.6 million to the project. Quebecor also expected financial support of one million from the City of Montreal, which had not yet been confirmed, although discussions were going well, the company suggested.
How much would this revitalization plan have cost in total? Quebecor did not provide figures. The company has also not disclosed how much it is willing to invest. “Projects of this importance must be carried out in an equitable manner between public and private contributions”, we simply mentioned.
In the office of the Minister of Heritage, Pascale St-Onge, we say we understand “that it is a difficult situation for a non-profit organization to lose private investors”, while recalling that a subsidy of A million dollars was on the table.
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