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Less than a month away from opening night, we´re living a snowstorm of activity. The invitations have to be sent, the adverts will start to appear in the media, the press conferences… And we´re very excited about it all.

Luis Garza our programming director has done a great job getting some of the best films available this year, watching all of the 1850 entries and now confines his attention to the computer screen as he follows up on the way the 194 films from 31 countries are traveling to Monterrey.

We should have our program online next week so you can begin to plan which films are completely UNMISSABLE!!!

This weekend a promotional program with some of the films that will be showing at the festival will be distributed at all MMCinemas in Monterrey and at the Nuevo León Cinematheque.

-Our call for entries for the Audience Jury was announced. The community of the State of Nuevo Leon can apply for a place in this important new festival section by sending an email to info@monterreyfilmfestival.com

-We have recieved some rather peculiar stuff wrapping the screener copies of your competition features and short films. But that’s another whole different post coming soon.

-We’ve been watching many many films and the material for this year sections is promising and edgy.

-We have a brand new front entrance look. We like it but it’s a “see trough” layer and we can not watch porn without some passers by noticing it.

-India, South Afrifa, Turkmenistán and New Zenald are the most distant places of those than we have received material.

We´re very happy to have the Short Shorts Film Festival as a special presentation on the weekend of April 18-20 2008.

We´re hoping to establish a partnership with Short Shorts and yearly show the best of their fest in Monterrey.

Don´t miss out on great programming from Japan, Asia, Latin America, Mexico and the rest of the world!

PROGRAM

APRIL 18

5:00 p.m. Latin American and Spanish shorts in competition I

7:00 p.m. Japanese Showcase I

9:00 p.m. International Showcase I

April 19

5:00 p.m. Asian Showcase I

7:00 p.m. International Showcase II

9:00 p.m. Latin American and Spanish shorts in competition II

April 20

5:00 p.m. Asian Showcase II

7:00 p.m. Japanese Showcase II

9:00 p.m. Mexican shors on video competition

For further reference:

LATIN AMERICAN AND SPANISH SHORTS IN COMPETITION 1 76 minutes

1 El canto del grillo – Dany Campos – Spain – 17′ 00″
2 La librería – Hernán Jabes – Venezuela 15′ 00″
3 XX – Cristian Jiménez – Chile 9′ 00″
4 Niebla – Emilio Ramos – Spain-México 7′ 30″
5 Máquina – Gabe Ibañez – Spain 16′ 00″
6 Bichos raros – Estíbaliz Burgaleta y Alegría Collantes – Spain 12′ 00″

JAPANESE SHOWCASE 1 71 minutes

1 Escape – Yoshiki Uematsu – Japón – 9´53″
2 An electric fan of Grandma – Satoshi Yamaguchi – Japón 7′ 56″
3 Chaos Theory – Koji Mizuguchi – Japón 12′ 18″
4 The fear despair – Ko Kuriki – Japón 3′ 25″
5 Without strings – Kunio Nosawa – Japón 13′ 00″
6 Chiyo no Omuake – Mesanori Baba – Japón/USA 24′ 15″

INTERNATIONAL SHOWCASE PROGRAM I 88 minutes

1 Checkpoint – Ben Phelps – Australia 11′ 30″
2 In the mood – Hannah Robinson – UK 7′ 00″
3 Sooner or later – István Madarász – Hungary 11′ 00″
4 Lonley together – Trond Fausa Aurvag – Norway 14′ 23″
5 The T-Shirt – Hossein Martin Fazeli – Czech Republic 10′ 44″
6 One hundred of a second – Susan Jacobson – UK 5′ 20″
7 Drake – Christoph Rainer – Austria 5′ 16″
8 Blind man – Hossein Martin Fazeli – Slovakia 1′ 20″
9 The rip-off – Kun Chang Canada – 10′ 10″
10 Offside – Erez Tadmor y Guy Nattiv – Israel 5′ 50″
11 50 Cents – Mathijs Geijskes – Netherlands 5′ 10″

INTERNATIONAL SHOWCASE 2 90 minutes

1 Sometimes it hurts – Geir Henning Hopland – Norway 6′ 15″
2 Bauke – Hisham Zaman – Norway 15′ 15″
3 Chesse – Pernilla Hindsefelt – Sweden 5′ 00″
4 Kibera Kid – Nathan Collett – Kenya 11′ 30″
5 Le diner – Cecile Vernant – France 13′ 25″
6 The fairies of Blackheath woods – Ciaran Foy – Ireland 3′ 30″
7 Witness – Erik De Bruyn – Netherlands 10′ 00″
8 The cutting edge – Gregory Morin – France 6′ 00″
9 When Elvis came to visit- Andreas Tibblin – Sweden 10′ 45″
10 The red balloon – Michael Olesen – USA 3′ 22″
11 Last stop – Greg Williams – Australia 5′ 30″

LATIN AMERICAN AND SPANISH SHORTS IN COMPETITION 2 90 minutes

1 Boletos por favor – Lucas Figueroa – España 14′ 00″
2 Guacho – Juan Minujin – Argentina 14′ 00″
3 Rapace – Joao Nicolau – Portugal 25′ 00″
4 Eramos pocos – Borja Cobeaga – España 16′ 00″
5 La belleza del espejo – Jorge Valencia – Colombia 14′ 10″
6 Handmade – Denis Kamioka – Brasil 7′ 00″

ASIAN SHOWCASE I 87 minutess

1 2 minutes Tae-Kyung Jung Korea 10′ 37″
2 Mei Arvin Chen Taiwan / USA 12′ 00″
3 Hallucii Goo-Shun Wang Taiwan / USA 3′ 45″
4 To be or not to be Jungjin Kim Korea 20′ 00″
5 DIY Royston Tan Singapore 5′ 45″
6 Shanu taxi Vasant Nath India 15′ 12″
7 Fast money Jerry Chan China / USA 14′ 10″
8 Dandelion Jackie Liao Taiwan 5′ 20″

ASIAN SHOWCASE PROGRAM 2 85 minutes

1 Mandarin Ghost – Jeong-Gook Lee – Korea 17′ 47″
2 Painter – Young-Kyun Park – Korea 5′ 57″
3 The drawer of memory – Po- Chou Chi – Taiwan 7′ 00″
4 All my life – Salem Salvati – Irán 21′ 00″
5 There was the moon and a fox – Babak Nazari – Irán 12′ 30″
6 3 minutes – Noppadol Suneta – Thailand 6′ 30″
7 The match maker – Cinzia Puspita – Indonesia 9′ 59″
8 White – Wei Keong Tan – Singapore 2′ 02″
9 Bleach – Tejal Patni – India 2′ 16″

JAPANESE SHOWCASE 2 82 minutes

1 Hajime – Kenshin Nawa – Japón 12′ 00″
2 Who killed the Stanley Black? – Nobuto Ochiai – Japón 10′ 00″
3 A long day of Mr. Calpaccio – Tsutomu Kobayashi – Japón 7′ 32″
4 Tengu gaiden – Hidetoshi Oneda – Japón 24′ 03″
5 Line – Hiroyuki Nakao – Japón 18′ 30″
6 Ai know – Satishi Oze – Japón 10′ 10″

MEXICAN SHORTS IN COMPETITION 91 minutes

1 De causas y azares – Ileana Leyva – 13′ 00″
2 El gusano – Sergio Tovar Velarde – 7′ 45″
3 Historia de un letrero – Alonso Alvarez Barreda – 4′ 45″
4 El gorrito de Morfeo – Raúl García Flores 1′ 00″
5 Lugares secretos – Alejandro Díaz SanVicente 19′ 00″
6 Vigilioxil 48 ml. – Fernando Castañeda Herrera 1′ 00″
7 La casa de las doncellas – Herbert Beltrán 16′ 00″
8 Encadenados – Jorge Ortiz Aranda 16′ 00″
9 George Lucas’ dream – Humberto Sánchez 12′ 16″

www.shortshorts.com

With five days left to our deadline, we are very happy to have in our office hundreds of films from all over the world, and many more on their way to Monterrey.

If you haven´t sent your film in yet, what are you waiting for? If you already have, you should soon receive a confirmation.

Last year we received 1354 submissions from 81 countries, will we beat last year´s record? Stay tuned… in a few weeks we´ll let you know..

Meanwhile, maybe you can spot your package in the picture above among the many that are undergoing classiffication right now…

The Monterrey International Film Festival, MMCinemas and the Nuevo León Council for the Arts, in collaboration with Warner Bros. Pictures Mexico, presented the national premiere of SULTANES DEL SUR (Sultans of the South) as part of the activities of the festival’s 4 edition due in October 2008.

The premiere took place on December 10th 2007 at MMCinemas Humberto Lobo, where at 9:00 p.m. sharp, actors Tony Dalton and Silverio Palacios, who star in the film arrived with producers Marco Polo Constandse and Fernando Rovzar and director Alejandro Lozano. For the first time in Mexico they presented the film to hundreds of special guests.

The audience enjoyed the film, which is full of action scenes and later participated in a lively q&a session with the films creators, who were very satisfied with the audience’s reaction.

Actors Barbara Mori and José María Torre were also present at the premiere as special guests of The Monterrey International Film Festival.

The Monterrey International Film Festival is pleased to invite filmmakers from Mexico and around the world to submit their short and feature films for the 2008 Festival. From the publication date up to April 18th, the Festival will be receiving films participating in the Festival’s official selection, for competition and out of competition.

The official competition includes the categories that have become traditional to the Festival such as short films in animation, documentary or fiction, feature documentary films, and feature fiction films. However, as a novelty this year, the Festival opens a new section in competition: the Nuevo Leon Films section.

Also all short films included in the Nuevo Leon Films section, along with the our of competition films in the “From Border to Border” section and Mexican short films in the Official Selection are eligible to receive the Best Mexican Short Film special award.

The Social Vision section: Film for a Better World, once more opens its call for entries for projects in any genre and length that present social problems of relevance to the filmmakers’ community. The objective of this section, which is characteristic to the Festival, is to remind us that films are agents of change and improvement of our world.

Another innovation for 2008 is the non-competitive Galeria Indie showcase with the purpose of promoting the best independently produced feature films from Mexico and the southern border states of the United States of America. Monterrey is located close to the border, so it seems natural to establish links and promote a positive dialog with our northern neighbors through our film productions.
In 2007, the Festival received 1354 registrations from 81 countries, which formed the greater part of the Festival’s program. This year the Festival expects to grow even more and receive even more films from more countries.

The prize goes to…

III MONTERREY INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2007

OFFICIAL RESULTS

FEATURE FILM DOCUMENTARY
BEST FEATURE DOCUMENTARY: The Old Thieves, by Everardo Gonzalez (Mexico)

FEATURE FILM NARRATIVE
BEST FEATURE NARRATIVE: Ika’s Journey, by Csaba Bóllok (Hungary)

Special Mention from the Jury for Best Sound: Fissures, by Alanté Kavaité (FRANCE)

Special Mention from the Jury for Best Cinematography: The Year My Parents Went On Vacation, by Cao Hamburger (BRAZIL)

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BEST MEXICAN SHORT FILM: End of the Journey, by Acán Coen

SHORT FILM DOCUMENTARY CATEGORY

FIRST PLACE: Yaptik Hasse, by Edgar Bartenev (RUSSIA)

SECOND PLACE: A Sunday in Pripyat, by Blandine Huk & Frederic Cousseau

SPECIAL MENTION FROM THE JURY: We’re Raised In Our Staffs of Authority

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SHORT FILM ANIMATION CATEGORY

FIRST PLACE: 458 NM, by Jan Blitzer, Ilija Brunk and Tom Weber (GERMANY)

SECOND PLACE: Voodoo Bayou, by Javier Gutiérrez (MEXICO)

SPECIAL MENTION FROM THE JURY: Apnee, by Claude Chabot (FRANCE)

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SHORT FILM NARRATIVE CATEGORY

FIRST PLACE: Bhaï Bhaï, by Olivier Klein (FRANCE)

SECOND PLACE: Innocent as I Was, by Xiao Xiao (CHINA)

SPECIAL MENTION FFROM THE JURY: Tristeza, by Pierre Saint Martin (MEXICO)

The Monterrey International Film Festival began sucessfully with the screening of “The Black Pimpernel” (Ulf Hultberg, 2007).

After the inauguration ceremony, Raquel Guajardo, executive producer, Ulf Hultberg and Asa Faringer, directors and Michael Lundeskov, producer were invited onstage, and were joined by the cast to present the film.

The night´s surprise was the presence of the Lavanderos family, who lived a very similar story to the one told in the film.

The Aula Magna was full to capacity as the lights dimmed and the film began.

“El Clavel Negro” (The Black Pimpernel) will open FICMTY 07 in less than a week. The film is a Mexican-Swedish-Danish co-production and it will have its North and Latin American premiere at the festival.

The film will be accompanied by the cast and crew, including producers Raquel Guajardo and Michael Lunderskov as well as directors Åsa Faringer and Ulf Hultberg. From the cast, Kate del Castillo, Lumi Cavazos, Lisa Werlinder, Carsten Norgaard and Rolando Garza will be at the Red Carpet for the Festival inauguration and the film´s premiere.

Many other celebrities and personalities will be at the inauguration, which starts off activities for the festival at many other locations including:

MMCinemas Muestra Alterna (4 theatres)
MMCinemas Humberto Lobo (2 theatres)
Nuevo León Cinematheque (2 theatres)
Sala Guajardo (1 theatre)
Cinema Fósforo (1 theatre)

We hope to see you there!!!!

“Vivos los llevaron, vivos los queremos” (alive they took them, alive we want them) is a documentary about political dissappearances in 1970´s Monterrey. Mrs. Rosario Ibarra de Piedra (second from right in the photo) is one of the leading activists claiming the return of their sons and loved ones.

Cecilia Serna (last one on the right in the photo) directed the film which is now participating in the VISION SOCIAL section of the Festival. Vision Social (Social Vision) is a section dedicated to films that explores issues relevant to the filmmakers community. It is non competitive because of the nature of the films, which can be shorts, medium length or features, documentary, fiction or a mix of both. The aim is to highlight the positive uses of the medium to better societies and the world. Film (and film festivals) has a responsability to the community, and Visión Social is an effort to acknowledge it.

“Vivos los llevaron, vivos los queremos” will be playing at MMCinemas Tec, theater 4 on August 17th.