FIFA executive director Natalie McNeil, BFA 95 | Photo credit: Johanne Biffi
Montreal’s International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) turned 14 the same year Natalie McNeil, BFA (film studies) 95, graduated from Concordia.
On the eve of FIFA’s 34th edition 20 years later, in March 2016, McNeil was named executive director of the esteemed film festival.
This year, FIFA screened 169 documentaries and works in media arts from 25 countries — including, for the first time, films from Morocco and Luxembourg — over 11 days in eight venues.
FIFA has come a long way since its debut in 1981, which lasted five days and screened 50 films from 12 countries in a single venue. And it has grown beyond film and video: the 2016 edition also featured art exhibitions, master classes and performances.
“FIFA is important because it is the only film festival of its kind in North America whose focus is art in various artistic disciplines,” McNeil says proudly. “In fact, it is the largest such film festival in the world and further positions Montreal as a capital of art.”
McNeil is well-suited to run the non-profit FIFA. Before joining the festival, she held various positions in the film and education sectors: McNeil was an administrative director for the American-based Council on International Educational Exchange, a resident director for Boston College, vice president of Carte Blanche Films and, most recently, co-president of the board of directors of the Quebec organization Femmes du cinéma, de la télévision et des médias numériques (FCTMN).
She also characterizes her work as a development director for the Fédération culturelle canadienne française and as chief executive of the Alliance des producteurs francophones du Canada, as vital to help promote French-language culture and arts in Canada.
McNeil has also been a teacher at the Institut national de l’image et du son since 2011.
In addition to her BFA from Concordia, McNeil has earned degrees from Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle and École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris and is pursuing her MBA at McGill University. “But it all began for me at Concordia, which was an extremely enjoyable experience,” she says.
“I was accepted in film studies, which allowed me to discover film — which was exactly what I wanted to do — and it is what pushed me to further my studies. Concordia was the university that planted the seed in my mind about how to approach content in film,” says McNeil.
Now at FIFA, McNeil recognizes she has a unique opportunity to influence the milieu she so loves, and secure the future of FIFA whose “Save FIFA” crowdfunding campaign issues tax receipts for 100 per cent of all donations.
“I want to ensure the continued existence of FIFA, which this year drew large numbers of film-goers,” McNeil says. “I am also looking forward to integrating the digital arts in the festival programming.”
Through all of this, McNeil has worked with scores of young women in the film business. “In our industry we have women running companies, but it is exceptional,” says McNeil. “I do believe it is tougher for women to establish themselves in the film business, but it is not just in cinema and television — this reality exists in all industries.”
Despite her sterling track record, “I have never seen myself as a role model, but I do hope I am helping my younger colleagues,” McNeil says.
“I do speak with young women about work, counsel them about their CVs. But I think I still have a ways to go myself before anybody thinks I am a role model,” she says. “If that’s the case, then I’m honoured, but I still have much to do.”