This Tuesday, November 22, the Board of Guadalajara International Film Festival (FICG) issued a statement stating that a drastic budget cut will affect the activities of its upcoming 2023 edition. The letter establishes that the government funds originally allocated to the festival will suffer a reduction of more than 70 percent. And this would be a completely unjustified penalty. It is enough to consider the contributions of the great event in Jalisco with regard to cinematographic diffusion and the training of emerging talents.
The organizers of FICG 2023, scheduled for the middle of next year, point out that the administration of Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro Ramírez opted for a budget cut in order to allocate that item to the Directorate of Filming of the State of Jalisco; dependency whose calls seek to promote young creators of the film industry. However, the Board of Trustees has described that measure as “myopic”. After all, “it is precisely at the FICG where many of the Jalisco creators have been trained and where their works are exhibited, which have achieved international reach precisely because they are part of the Festival,” according to the statement.
Likewise, emphasis is placed on the importance of certain prestigious spaces within the FICG that would be harmed by the lack of financial support. For example, him Talents Guadalajara, which for fourteen years has allowed the meeting and consolidation of professional links between actors and filmmakers belonging to the new generations of film creators in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. The relevance of the program is also highlighted Doculabwhich provides support to Ibero-American documentary projects in the editing stage.
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The letter addressed to the Jalisco Congress and to public opinion also emphasizes the work of the FICG to generate economic benefits in the entity; this since its first edition in 1986. On the other hand, it is presumed a list of figures of international stature who have paraded through the red carpet of the festival; among them, Agnès Varda, Guillermo del Toro, Salma Hayek, Werner Herzog, Pedro Almodóvar, Alfonso Cuarón, John Malkovich, Mia Farrow, Antonio Banderas, Alejandro González Iñárritu and Willem Dafoe.
“It seems that Enrique Alfaro’s objective is to suffocate the Guadalajara International Film Festival, which expresses a lack of vision and commitment to the culture of our city and state,” the statement said. “For a year now, the government of Jalisco has been fracturing the relationship that we have had together for almost four decades, something incomprehensible for those of us who are part of this Festival.”
And adds:
«We will not give up on the mission of disseminating and promoting the cinema made in Jalisco and Mexico; to be the bridge between national and world cinematography».
The 38th edition of the Guadalajara International Film Festival is scheduled to take place from June 3 to 9, 2023.
Antonio G. Spindola I have very bad memory. Out of solidarity with my memories, I choose to lose myself too. Preferably in a movie theater.