Serge Losique will have a good reason to take a bow when the 30th edition of Montreal's World Film Festival kicks off on Aug. 24.

He's still standing.

L'Équipe Spectra head Alain Simard, backed by key Quebec industry players, tried hard to topple Losique last year by launching the ill-fated rival New Montreal FilmFest. Telefilm Canada and SODEC denied WFF key subsidies, instead giving their support to NMFF. Meanwhile, major Quebec distributors continue to choose the Toronto festival as a preferred launch pad.

But despite all this, the WFF founder and president remains the face of Montreal's summer film festival season.

"Losique is rising like the phoenix," says Les Boys IV director George Mihalka.

Bon Cop, Bad Cop producer Kevin Tierney has similar praise for the great survivor.

"The only things that will be left standing after the atom bomb will be Keith Richards and Serge Losique," he insists.

As in past years, films from outside of North America and from little-known directors will dominate the lineup at the decidedly uncommercial WFF.

The 22-strong field vying for the Grand Prix of the Americas has no American movies - indie or otherwise - and only one Canadian picture - Stéphane Lapointe's The Secret Life of Happy People. The romantic comedy about a young man falling in love with a woman on a mission screened out of competition in Cannes and will close out the WFF on Sept. 4.

Among the few notable homegrown pictures at WFF this year is the Canada/France copro The Chinese Botanist's Daughter, a drama set in 1980s China by French-Chinese director Dai Sijie, with Max Films' Luc Vandal and Roger Frappier sharing producer credits.

Out of competition, WFF will offer Canadian fare including: Hunt Hoe's horror comedy First Bite, starring David La Haye; Pierre Gang's serial killer drama Black Eyed Dog; Cerberes a l'horizon, a historic look at industrialization in Quebec by Jean Gagné and Serge Gagné; and Damian Lee's romantic drama King of Sorrow.

The fest remains true to its mandate to celebrate world cinema, with a lineup boasting 215 features from 76 countries, reflecting the strength of Latin American, Asian and European films, with an emphasis on France. French titles include: Bernard Werber's sci-fi flick Nos amis les Terriens (Our Earthmen Friends), which will open the festival; Jacques Fieschi's French California, starring Nathalie Baye; Jean-Pierre Darroussin's The Premonition; Gabriel Le Bomin's Fragments of Antonin; and Dominique Lienhard's Müetter.

"We have big producing countries, but also emerging countries like Afghanistan, Haiti and Mauritius," says festival VP Danièle Cauchard. "This is the purpose of the festival - opening up films from a lot of countries and making sure they can be seen."

U.S. movies at WFF include the doc Saint of 9/11, which bowed at Tribeca, Ryan Byrne's drug-addict drama Á Colombia and Rick Stevenson's romantic comedy Expiration Date.