A Sentimental Capitalism by Quebec director Olivier Asselin mixes fantastical images and cinematic styles. (Festival du Nouveau Cinema )Montreal's Festival du Nouveau Cinema opens Wednesday with A Sentimental Capitalism, an ambitious feature by Quebec director Olivier Asselin.

The film — with multiple story lines that range from a couple in Paris to operators in New York to a man who sells porcelain toilets — is making its world premiere.

A Sentimental Capitalism shares opening night with the short surreal film Next Floor, about gluttony, which won an award at Cannes for director Denis Villeneuve.

Madeleine Molymeaux, a programmer with the festival, says the festival was excited by Asselin's irreverent take on the notion that anything can be sold.

It was also exciting to find a young filmmaker who makes reference to old film styles, including experimental film and expressionism of the 1920s and '30s, she said.

"It's not the normal narrative approach you see in cinema, but a linking of fantastical stories and many film genres," she said.

While Asselin has a background in TV and has made previous features such as Les Derniers Jours de Paris, he is, like most festival directors, early in his career.

The International Selection program at Festival du Nouveau Cinema features first and second features by young directors and is often a harbinger of young talent.

"Our core audience is young people," Molymeaux told CBC News. "They see what we're trying to do with young filmmakers."

There are 250 films scheduled for the festival, which runs Oct. 8 to 19, chosen from among 4,000 submitted.

The international program, where filmmakers compete for the Louve d'Or, includes British filmmaker Steve McQueen's Hunger and Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir, both of them have been acclaimed at other film festivals.

Two Canadian films were also able to earn a berth in the program — À l'Ouest de Pluton by Henry Bernadet and Myriam Verrault and Down to the Dirt by Justin Simms.

À l'Ouest de Pluton by Henry Bernadet and Myriam Verrault is a portrait of youth culture in Montreal. (Festival du Nouveau Cinema )Down to the Dirt, an odd love story set in St. John's, N.L., about a hooligan poet and his girlfriend, is based on the book of the same name by Joel Thomas Hynes. Molymeaux describes it as "sexy and youthful" and reminiscent of new filmmakers coming out of Ireland and Britain.

Quebec City-shot À l'Ouest de Pluton is an inside look at the youth scene through the lens of two friends and their unlikely Rat Pack of followers.

"These guys are very unabashed at how they treat themselves, how they speak to each other. They're doing teenaged things, like trying to figure out how to buy beer or smoke hash, but it's not like a lot of youth movies with [stereotyped characters]," Molymeaux said. "It's very much in the moment."

She said one of the most popular parts of the festival is the Focus section, which highlights new Canadian and Quebec films.

This year, that section features:

• Chers Électeurs by Manuel Foglia, about the election process in Quebec.
• All Together Now, by Adrian Wills, about Cirque du Soleil's production of Love.
• La Memoire des Anges, by Luc Bourdon, which uses NFB archives to conjure Montreal of the 1950s.
• RIP: Remix Manifesto, by Brett Gaylor, about the scene for open source remix music.
• Sous la Cagoule, by Patricio Henriquez, a documentary look at torture today.

The energy of the festival comes in part from the Quebec film industry, Molymeaux said.

"There is such a vibrant industry here. We are not trying to make copycat movies of anywhere else."