Quebec is the honored invitee for this year’s Festival Internacional de Cine de Guadalajara Film Festival (FICG29), as the premier film festival in Latin America gears up for its 29th ten-day exposition, March 21 through 30, in various venues around the city.
Designed with a public audience in mind, the festival emphasizes opportunities for film lovers of every stripe rub elbows with celebrities and film experts and see new works by top auteurs from this region and around the world. Taking over most of the cinema and exhibition halls in the city, this important annual cultural event offers a creative exchange between professionals, filmmakers, critics, students, and audiences of Ibero-America.
Film submissions include those from Mexico, Latin America, Spain and Portugal completed in the last year that have not yet been premiered and exhibited in Mexico. Entries will vie for several awards with monetary prizes from 150,000 pesos for the esteemed “Mezcal Prize” for the best Mexican film to awards of 150,000 pesos to 250,000 pesos for Best Ibero-American feature in categories of Best Director, Best First Feature, Special Jury Prize, and Best Film. Other award categories include Ibero-American documentary prizes, as well as for best Mexican animation, best short films, and the Maguey Award for best Queer theme or story related to the LGBTTTI community. Fresh from its third exhibition year in Hollywood this past November, the festival is a boon for local film-lovers, poised as it is to premiere works of increasingly high quality.An important component of the festival is the emphasis on nurturing young film students. According to their spokespeople, the FICG places a major emphasis on building a solid film industry in Mexico and Ibero America. Wishing to draw in both younger audiences and assist aspiring filmmakers, the Festival managers have in previous years established an education component as a platform for enhancing young filmmakers’ abilities in audiovisual creation. This year, the program includes four activities with programs such as “DocuLab Guadalajara” and “Talent Campus Guadalajara” where future creators can take part in master classes and dialogues with expert directors, producers, actors and more.
Enjoying an explosive seven-year growth of the Guadalajara Film Market will provide an extended exhibition area, serving as a meeting point for film-makers and related professionals and for film-buffs alike. The Film Market exhibition booths will be located in at the Festival Headquarters at Expo Guadalajara downtown.
The Festival is sponsored by the University of Guadalajara, the Mexican Film Institute (Imcine), the National Council for Culture and the Arts (Conaculta), the State Government of Jalisco, and the cities of Guadalajara and Zapopan. Full Festival information will be printed about two weeks prior to the event’s opening date. For more information about submissions, education events, venues for viewing and marketplace, competition rules, mission and more, visit the website at www.ficg.mx. Event planners recommend checking the site daily to keep abreast of changing parallel events around the city.