Behind FLIM: Meeting the Game Enthusiasts!

FLIM shook up Montreal this July with its very first edition, full of sunshine, games, and laughter. We sat down with Marc-Antoine Doyon and Naïl Belloufi, two passionate organizers, to hear the behind-the-scenes story of this adventure!

Hello, team! Introduce yourselves!

Marc: So, I’m Marc-Antoine Doyon. In real life, I’m a filmmaker, but here I wear the hat of FLIM promoter.

Naïl: And I’m Naïl Belloufi. I’m a board game librarian in real life, and for FLIM, I handle the treasury, administration… basically, I’m Marc-Antoine’s right-hand man.

First of all, congratulations on organizing FLIM! How did the somewhat crazy idea of launching a gaming festival in Montreal this summer come about?

Marc: Thanks! Yeah. How did we come up with the idea? About a year and a half, two years ago, I was talking with the Es-tu Game? team, and we were trying to figure out: what’s the next step for us? What’s missing in the gaming scene in Quebec? We concluded that maybe we should try creating an event. At first, we thought: okay, it could be big… but let’s do something modest, something we’re capable of. And a year and a half later… it ended up much bigger than we imagined! But that’s perfectly fine.

Naïl: Exactly. We really just wanted to add something new. We know there are already lots of festivals in Quebec – and they’re all our friends! But the idea was to offer a new format, because most events are indoors with our winter weather… This time, we really wanted to create something outdoors. A place where anyone passing by could come play, truly opening the doors to gaming, while of course welcoming our board game fans.

Marc: It’s so beautiful when you talk, haha!

What makes FLIM unique among existing gaming festivals?

Naïl: Us? Haha. No, what makes it unique in Quebec is really the outdoor aspect, but also a little bit of craziness… because we are a bit crazy, let’s be honest! We’re going to break some of the codes of the big tables full of games (even though we love that and are the first to want it), but that’s what I’d say. And we have a program that’s going to be really cool: people playing games, role-playing games, international guests… Lots of activities for the whole family. It’s going to be so much fun!

Who is actually behind organizing this event?

Marc: The core festival team is really me, Naïl, and Germain who’s right here (hi!). We also have the Es-tu Game? team with Benjamin, Raphaël, and Pierre-Louis who’s here too (hi!). Then there are people from outside helping us: Héloïse with the scenography, Antoine volunteering to help with events – because that’s not really our specialty. We are first and foremost game fans! So we have lots of people giving us a hand. And of course, we also have support from SQDC, Quartier Latin, UQAM… Basically, it’s a huge, huge team!

You’re a group of friends passionate about games with a big community in France and Canada. You make lots of videos, game presentations, rule explanations, and filmed game sessions. How did this passion evolve into a large-scale project like this?

Marc: Sure, at the core, we’re board game fans. Board games, role-playing games, Escape Rooms… I really like Escape Rooms! That led us to create a YouTube channel with Es-tu Game?, which allowed us to travel a lot. We went to Flip in Parthenay, FIJ in Cannes, GenCon in the U.S… And every time, it’s a real eye-opener. You think: wow, what an opportunity! Those events are really about people around tables, new releases, discoveries… And of course, we wanted people here to experience that too.

Naïl: Exactly. It’s all the excitement a festival or fair around board games can create. When you experience it, when you see it from the outside, you think: I want in! So… we created our own.

What kind of experience could visitors expect at FLIM?

Marc: Great question. There were tents with tables, chairs, and plenty of new games to discover. We really wanted to offer a true gamer experience, but also a festival vibe: something dynamic, a bit chaotic, where people participate. It wasn’t a classic fair where you just come to buy games. Yes, there were shops, but the idea wasn’t for presenters to just sit behind tables explaining games. We wanted people to play! There were giant games, games on stage with comedians and actors… And little surprises, happenings. Plenty to experience onsite, because we couldn’t reveal everything in advance. That was precious to us.

Naïl: As Marc-Antoine said, we wanted to reach everyone. Yes, board game fans, regular fair-goers… but also Uno or Monopoly players. We wanted to play with everyone. That’s why we even set up activities to help people find their game style and maybe discover new ways to play.

What do the behind-the-scenes of such an event look like? Any anecdotes?

Naïl: Hello, Naïl? Yeah, Marc-Antoine, how’s it going? So, I’m telling you… you see our 400 tables? Well… we don’t have them anymore. Just that kind of anecdote! (laughs)

Marc: But there were also really positive stories. Last year, I went to Festif in Baie-Saint-Paul, and there was a giant Pony inflatable. I fell in love with it and thought: wow, I’d love one for the festival. I wrote to Pony: “Hi Gabriel, where can we get this inflatable?” She put me in touch with the Mural team, and they said: “We’ll gladly lend it to you!” When that was confirmed, I told Sophie: “Okay, now we’re doing the festival!” We had big partners… but most importantly, we had the giant inflatable. Honestly, that was my little pride.

If you had to describe FLIM in three words, what would they be?

Naïl: Sun. Your turn.

Marc: International.

Naïl: Festive.

Marc: Funny, because in the end… it’s almost the acronym! FLIM: Festival Ludique International de Montréal. Well, no “sun” in there… (laughs) We should have! We should have called it “Sun Oil,” that’s the real name of our festival!

One must-see surprise over the weekend?

Marc: Yeah, besides the giant Kinzou inflatable, there were so many things. The thing I was most excited about was the giant Rock-Paper-Scissors. Saturday at 3 PM. The idea was to pause the entire festival, tell everyone: okay, come on! We even tried to stop downtown Montreal! (laughs) Everyone together for a giant Rock-Paper-Scissors for 15 minutes, then back to playing. I was so curious to see how people would get into it. A pretty unique happening. Of course, I was also excited to see Théo, Élodie Clément, Théo Rivière, Tatiana, Déborah… International guests who did tons of things during the festival. They signed autographs, presented new releases not even announced yet! Stuff that didn’t officially exist on Earth yet. Super exciting.

Naïl: And me, a big music fan, I was also looking forward to the Giant Hitster. That happened Sunday, with a live musician, singers… Truly memorable.

After this first edition, what’s your dream for FLIM’s future?

Marc: The idea is really to create a long-lasting festival. Something that endures. For this first year, we were obviously super motivated, full of ideas… It was a bit our “spaghetti year,” you throw things at the wall and see what sticks! (laughs) Does it work?

Naïl: Is it al dente or not?

Marc: Exactly. We try to do it our way, and most importantly, listen to people: take feedback, see what worked, what didn’t… and grow with the community. We really want to stay in tune with the players who come. So come to the festival, tell us what you liked! Because we just want more of that in the years to come.

Naïl: We’ll put a lot of energy to make it stick over time. Our festival mentor is Flip, in Parthenay. They’ve been around for 40 years! It’s not by chance it’s huge: 220 exhibitors, a whole town around games… That’s a bit our goal, but we’re taking it step by step.