The future of the Montreal World Film Festival is in doubt after the Cineplex chain of movie theatres announced it would be pulling out of the fest on Thursday.

While this year’s edition will go on, showing dozens of films on just a single screen, it’s the latest blow to an embattled event that just two days ago saw its entire staff quit, citing poor leadership.

In a statement, Cineplex Entertainment VP Operations Eastern Canada and GM Quebec Daniel Seguin cited several reasons for the withdrawal.

“While we’ve been working hard to support and coordinate the 2016 festival for some time now, because of financial, timing and operational concerns with the festival itself, we had to make the difficult decision to not partner with them this year,” he said.

In a follow-up statement, the company clarified:

"We gave (festival president Serge Losique) multiple extensions over the past weeks to provide us with a deposit for this festival," they said. "Given the recent news of the resignation of his team which subsequently put into question his ability to operate the festival, we decided it was best to not participate this year."

Losique could not be reached for comment.

In recent years, the festival has lost both corporate sponsors and public funding from Quebec and Ottawa. 

The MWFF stands in stark contract to the Toronto International Film Festival. Though both were started at roughly the same time, one has floundered while the other has become among the most important annual events in the cinema world.

"The fact of the matter is that the Montreal World Film Festival has been surpassed by a zillion other festivals not just around the country, but in Montreal," said film critic Bill Brownstein. "The Fantasia Film Festival, you have the Festival of New Cinema, you have the Art Film Festiva, you've got a documentary film festival."

Film distribution company Filmoption International Vice-President Andrew Noble said the collapse of the MWFF has been a huge blow. Noble said he has been forced to do all promotion for the film Embrasse-Moi Comme Tu M’Aimes, which is scheduled to open the festival at the Imperial Theatre at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, all by himself.

“People work their hearts out, we’ve been working on this film for four or five years now,” he said. “There’s a lot of people, there’s a lot artists who have been involved in it. There’s a lot of money that’s been invested in it. If you’re coming here to present your film and have your world premiere and everyone is talking about how bad the festival is, that is disappointing and tough to swallow.”