sPeCial Feature mexican film industry

the MexiCan filM industry

Photo FICG27 / MICHEL AMADO

A Plot that Continues to Thicken

as tHe industry Progresses in takes and wraPs, MexiCo Continues to Make quality FilMs witH box oFFiCe Potential tHat deserve tHe international reCognition tHey Have garnered.
by omar magaa

he year has barely begun and already the movies are the talk of the town. Hundreds of reviews of the French-Belgian film The Artist which took home no less than five Oscars at the 84th Academy Awards are making the rounds as we speak. This month also brings the Guadalajara International Film Festival (FICG, according to its Spanish acronym), affording audiences in Mexicos second largest city the chance to see the premieres of some 50 Mexican-made films at commercial movie theaters. Another 50 or so film related events, some more specialized than others, will be taking place the length and breadth of the country over the coming months. Most of

the new Mexican films showcased at these festivals have been financed by a combination of private and government funds under a mechanism that has been oiling the industrys projectors since 2006. Determined to expand in terms of both quantity and quality, Mexico produced 67 feature films in 2011, 58 of which were financed with government funds and nine with private capital. According to the Mexican Film Institute (IMCINE), 59 of these features premiered in Mexico, confirming that the number of Mexican productions and premieres has increased slowly but surely since tax incentives were introduced to consolidate the seventh art as an industry, based on a model that combines government and private sector financing.

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Photos ArCHIvE

Under that model, the Mexican government allocates 70 million USD a year to film projects. These funds are distributed via entities such as the Fund for Quality Film Productions (FOPROCINE) and the Film Investment and Stimulus Fund (FIDECINE). Additionally, Mexican law provides for the setting up of a private capital fund, managed and distributed by IMCINE via the EFICINE 226 incentive. Created to support the production of fictional features, documentaries and animated films, Mexican production companies and individuals are eligible for FOPROCINE financing, although foreign filmmakers can apply provided they have been residing in the country for at least two years and can prove they have been involved in the Mexican film industry during that time. FIDECINE is geared more toward the production, postproduction, distribution and screening of fictional features and animated films and includes incentives for commercial showings and good track records at Mexican and international festivals. For instance, directors whose films recoup 100% of financial assistance received

under the mechanism are granted an equivalent amount to make a second film. These two funds operate via venture capital and credit lines: filmmakers may only apply for financial assistance from one at a time but both can be combined with EFICINE 226. Commonly referred to as simply 226, the incentive was introduced in 2006 and allows taxpayers, both individuals and corporations, to participate in the production and postproduction of Mexican features and co-productions. The backer receives a tax credit equivalent to the amount invested up to a maximum of 20 million pesos which can be used to offset income tax. A maximum of 500 million pesos is granted in tax credits every year. Since the mechanism came into effect, 408 companies have backed 207 film projects, including first features, documentaries and animated films. Aside from the fringe benefits that come with a successful festival tour, like the one on which Patricia Martnez de Velascos Aqu entre nos (2010) embarked, films like Luis Estradas El infierno (2010) have en-

couraged Mexican audiences to go see films made on their home turf. The 226 incentive has proven to be a good source of investment and has helped consolidate the Mexican industry. The number of films produced has increased in recent years, says Andrea Stavenhagen, codirector of the Industry section of FICG. Other countries like Spain, which is constantly producing films, have either adopted or are seeking to adopt similar joint financing models, according to an interview Jos Mara Lasalle gave to the Spanish daily, El Pas, not so long ago. Appointed Ministry of Culture under the government formed by Spains new president Mariano Rajoy, Lasalle is quoted as saying we shouldnt think of film as a creative art but as a business for which a public and private financing model urgently needs to be found if it is to survive government budget cuts in these times of crisis. If the last six years are anything to go by, Mexicos industry should have no trouble weathering the storm, reeling in increasing larger audiences with films that leave no doubt as to the growing professionalization and technical capacity of the countrys filmmakers.

sPeCial Feature mexican film industry

Last year was especially promising, with the release of four films that rekindled national pride in Mexican-made films, caused an impact abroad and brought in substantial box office takings: the animated feature Don Gato was seen by some 2.6 million viewers, another 2 million paid to watch Salvando al soldado Prez, the documentary Presunto culpable attracted audiences of 1.7 million and La leyenda de la Llorona 1.3 million. In 2011, Mexican movie theaters received a total of 13 million viewers and posted box office revenues of 45 million usd. Movie theaters are starting to offer more Mexican-made films and are showing them for a longer period. They are also creeping into the portfolios of the large distributors represented in Mexico by the multinationals Universal Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Buena Vista and Disney. All the large distributors brought Mexican films with good box office potential to this years FICG, says Alejandra Pauln, who co-directs the festivals Industry section along with Stavenhagen. In some cases, she adds, distributors that have their own production areas have invested in these films.

Other Mexican distributors like Videocine, a subsidiary of Televisa, are involved in the production of Mexican films, which they distribute along with international titles. Videocine managed to bring Beto Gmez Salvando al soldado Prez to 275 movie theaters for its premiere on March 18, 2011, and to another 312 in the weeks thereafter. On the international festival circuit, Mexico continues to live up to its reputation as a seedbed of documentary filmmakers, many of whom are graduates of the Film Training Center (CCC), the University Center for Film Studies (CUEC) at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the Sound and Image Department (DIS) at the University of Guadalajara (UdeG) and other universities offering audiovisual related courses. Competing at the 27th edition of FICG are documentary filmmakers who have developed their own cinematographic language, like Everardo Gonzlez, director of Cuates de Australia, and Juan Carlos Rulfo, who co-directed Carrire, 250 metros a film on the life of the French screenwriter Jean Claude Carrire with Natalia Gil.

As a form of artistic expression, we are seeing more and more Mexican films that reflect the personal views of their directors, like those of Rodrigo Pl and Carlos Reygadas and films like El premio and Cochochi, which met with international critical acclaim, says Stavenhagen. The Industry Section of Gualajaras Festival that Stavenhagen and Pauln direct is designed to help mesh the creative and business aspects of filmmaking. New filmmakers, they say, must remember that the before, during and after of every project requires a detailed financing plan so the film can be produced and completed using local capital or as a co-production and to ensure that it is distributed and that it reaches international markets so the initial investment can be recouped. The Morelia, Guanajuato, Mayan Riviera and DocsDF film festivals have created similar sections, where industry experts discuss the role of producers, agents and distributors in a plot that looks destined to thicken into a solid industry that serves as a benchmark for its Latin American counterparts. n

Photo FICG27 / GILbErtO tOrrEs

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InfograPhIC OLDEMAr

ACTION!
MEXICAN FILM INDUSTRY IN NUMBERS

New Film Releases in Mexico

Foreign films (non US) US films Mexican films

2005: 279

2006: 298

2007: 305

121 26

132

133 33

132

142 43 189

120

Attendance levels
(millions) 130 139 152 137 163 163 165

175

182

178

00

01

02

03

04

05

06

07

08

09

10

Films Produced
With State Funding 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 100% Private Funding

17 7 7 7 17 25 14

11

12 11 42 34 41 57 57 58 58 9 9 11 11 30 29 13

sPeCial Feature mexican film industry

2008: 336

2009: 307

2010: 313

MEXICAN FILMS IN THE WORLD

Spain

International Co-productions 2007-2010

29
Argentina

14 149 49 128 131 54 122 140 56

Chile 731.93 611.64 483.50 404.72 Uruguay 536.44 562.59 525.81 US 591.88 Germany

117

France

14 14 11 5 5
Peru

Box-office Revenue
(million USD) Total 433.33 Mexico 442.51 449.62

5 34.48 36.72 42.99 22.08 26.46 22.79

00 01 02 03 04 05
*Conversion rate as of December 31 of each year.

36.57
06

45.55 38.54
07 08

37.98
09

40.76
10

Colombia

Countries with highest number of Mexican film releases

Canada 3|3 France 5|7 UK 2|4 Germany 3|5 Country 09 | 10

(number of Mexican films released)

International Awards for Mexican Films

34 42
01 02

Spain 7|3 US 12 | 3 Colombia 5|4 Argentina 3|3 Venezuela 3|3 Uruguay 3|3

35 35 75 41 68 57 61

03

12 04
05 06 07 08 09 10

Source: Mexican Film Institute ( IMCINE).