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The start date for the Monterrey International Film Festival is drawing near and one of the top things that get the production team motivated is the arrival of our films in competition.  The first one to arrive  this year was Mika Kaurismaki’s “Three Wise Men”.

Every visit from the courier is received by anxious anticipation at the office and for this first arrival you can see it flourish on our Programming Director’s smile as he opened the box that contained the six reels of the finnish film.

The bets are on among the festival crewmembers as to which film will arrive next.  Some are even calculating distances between countries and continents, let alone customs bureaucracy. So every time the courier comes through the door, inevitably heads will turn in expectation.

Luis Garza meets Maki Kaurismaki

Saturday, June 27th, four o’clock in the afternoon… everything ready in our offices for our first meeting with the volunteers of this great event.

To be honest, we were a lil’ bit nervous, but the volunteers exceeded our expectations.

At the end, the result was great. The meeting had a lil’ bit of everything, from the presentation of the staff and volunteers’ testimonials of past editions, to claps and laughs… lots of laughs.

We have no doubt we are ready to begin the adventure.

Yesterday we went “scouting” to one of our official venues: MMCinemas Leones. Scouting is nothing else than exploring to gain information.

The appointment was early in the morning. Maybe many of you have never been on an empty theater, is a very fun experience.

We were taking pictures to check out space details, and we also visited the projection booth… specially since there are films that will not be projected on 35mm and for us is very important that you have the best experience, when you come to the Festival and see the films.

Speaking about projection, not many of us have got the chance to see how a 35mm projector is, here is a pic. Is not as full of glamour as some could imagine, but it definitely makes it possible for us to know wonderful stories, see great images and discover different cultures and imaginary worlds.

Coming soon… the publication of our official film selection.

We thank all of you for submitting your films to the festival. We have once again surpassed last year´s number of entries and we are very proud to have received your films.

Due to the health crisis in Mexico, our offices will be closed until may 6th, we ask you to be patient if you have not received confirmation of your submission.

If you have any questions, please write us at info@monterreyfilmfestival.com

…for our call for entries.

So many packages, safekeeping the many films that we’ve received this year and are waiting to be watched, are covering our office tables. The mood is of anticipation. A lot of work to do.

But our arms and eyes are wide open expecting more films before the end of the call for entries, which is getting closer. In 16 days… on April 30th, the last film will be registered and sent to Monterrey.

We’ve happily received participating films from Spain, Germany, France and the United Kingdom; Cyprus and Tunisia; as well as from countries on the other side of the globe, like Nepal and Yemen and many more.

Our programming team has been watching films since February. Many of them deal with current issues, like the financial and environmental crisis. But variety isn’t scarce.

And even though we’re running out of office space, we know that there is always room and time for good films, and we’re always hoping that you’ll send your’s our way. Before the end… of our call for entries…

Changing our window graphics is definitely the sign that lets us and everyone else know that a new festival year is beginning. So we´re on our way to number five. Australia is our guest country, a new music video production rally and the second film industry day will all be a part of 2009. So stay tuned and follow us along the way…

For starters our call for entries will be up on December first… so be sure to check our web site: www.monterreyfilmfestival.com

We packed our bags and headed for another visit to our partner fest, the Austin Film Festival.

As always, the festival staff and the screenwriter´s conference were amazing. And we had a chance to see some interesting films, like Oliver Stone´s “W”, which was introduced by James Cromwell, and Danny Boyle´s “Slumdog Millionaire” which he introduced himself.

And of course we had the chance to catch up with great friends like writers Dan Petrie, Alex Smith, and Herschell Weingrod, as well as Carol Pirie from the Texas Film Commission and Drew Mayer-Oakes from the San Antonio Film Commission

Many thanks to Barbara, Linnea, Kelly, John, and all the folks at the AFF for another great festival.

Danny Boyle

Drew, Luis and I

Herschell Weingrod and I

Luis, myself, Dan Petrie and Rick

Luis and Alex Smith

2008 was a big year for the festival… we grew in many ways and had a great response from participants and audience. Here´s the official info:

The Fourth Monterrey International Film Festival took place from August 15th to the 23rd in venues of the Nuevo León Council for the Arts and MMCinemas. With an attendance of over 26,750, the festival succeeded in surpassing all past editions.

In response to it´s call for entries, the festival received 1852 entries from 111 countries from 5 contintents. Out of these the official selection was conformed, with 14 feature films, 40 international shorts, 16 Mexican shorts and 6 Nuevo León feature films.

118 short and feature films were part of many different showcases, such as the “Social vision”, “Guest Country”, “Galleria”, “Student Film Showcase”, and tribute retrospectives.

Argentina was the guest country for 2008 and bonds were tightened with the Argentinian Embassy and its cultural aggregate Mr. Gustavo Souto as well as the INCAA, the argentinian film institute.

The festival honored the following distinguished filmmakers in 2008:

Tommy Lee Jones
International Tribute

Héctor Bonilla
Mexican Tribute

Cecilia Roth
Argentina Guest Country
Special Tribute

Marcelo Céspedes / Cine Ojo
Argentina Guest Country
Special Tribute

Rogelio González
Posthumous Tribute

Mexican Institute of Cinematography
25th Anniversary Tribute

César Jaime
International Screenwrtiter´s Conference
Special Tribute

The following awards were given at the festival´s closing ceremony:

Hot out of the printer´s we´ve received the first 2008 catalogues. You can easily see how fat it´s gotten since we started in 2005… And it´s not that we show many more pictures, but that more detailed information and different festival sections are available. Where maybe 10 films were listed on a page as a single program in 2005, almost every film has a full page and some even two, like the feature films in competition which this year have commentaries from our programming staff.

Catalogues can be found in all our venues. Get yours and begin your festival journey this year!

Francisco Quiroz, of ART21 STUDIO, our supplier for the “Cabrito de Plata” official award of the Monterrey International Film Festival, just sent us this photo of the main awards all finished and ready.

It´s very exciting for us to see them all lined up and to think that these awards will travel with so many filmmakers to so many different countries… And that some will stay in Mexico, and some even in Monterrey.

So the official countdown begins… 9 days left until FICMTY 2008.