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Partnership with Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía

Continuing the success of last year’s partnership with the Doha Film Institute (DFI), this year the Sarajevo Film Festival (SFF) will work with Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía(IMCINE) in order to bring Mexican films to the audiences of SFF. This is another step of SFF’s initiative to expand its network across continents and create new collaborations over the European borders, and its aim to support and connect emerging film professionals and filmmakers worldwide.

‘In celebrating 20 years of the Sarajevo Film Festival, it is time to reach out to new territories and find new partners outside of our region, who we can gain knowledge and experience from and who in turn can benefit from our unique perspective. In the last years Mexican cinema has shown not only to be a rich and vivid creative industry, but also a solid platform where diversity, identity and originality coexist to offer high quality audiovisual content.’ says Mirsad Purivatra, the director of SFF.

In co-operation with IMCINE, the Festival will welcome Mexican film professionals and filmmakers to this year’s SFF. The Industry activities at the CineLink Co-Production Market, designed to encourage international co-productions and co-operations, will offer the opportunity to help develop strong connections between the two countries’ film industries. An IMCINE representative will also give an overview of the Mexican film industry today. 

Apart from that, the Mexican project OPERACIÓN: BABY by José Luis Valle, which is currently in development,will be presented at CineLinkas well.

Participants of Talents Sarajevo will benefit from the experience and talent of the long-time Mexican production designer, Eugenio Caballero, who received an Oscar for his work on EL LABERINTO DEL FAUNO (Pan’s Labyrinth) (2006) by Guillermo Del Toro.

The public will have a chance to experience Mexican films through different screenings and meet the filmmakers who will be presenting their films at the festival. The films that will be screened are: 

GÜEROS (2014), from first-time director Alonso Ruizpalacios, the recipient of this year’s Best First Feature at the Berlinale, as well as the recipient of the Best Cinematography and a special jury mention at Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year; WORKERS (2013), which will be presented by its director José Luis Valle and actor Jesús Padilla. The film has won numerous awards, among others the Best Mexican Long Feature Film at the Guadalajara International Film Festival and Best Film at the Morelia International Film Festival; LA JAULA DE ORO (The Golden Dream) (2013) by Diego Quemada-Díez, the recipient of 16 festival awards including the Un Certain RegardTalent Prizeat Cannes Film Festival; and finally the film awarded the Best Documentary at the Morelia International Film Festival, EL CUARTO DES NUDO (The Naked Room)(2013) by Nuria Ibáñez, who will also present the film at the Festival. 

Furthermore, the director of the Morelia International Film Festival, Daniela Michel, juror at this year’s SFF, will present a series of Mexican shorts from Morelia Film Festival's 2013 competition programme.

The great Mexican film, AMORES PERROS (2000) by Alejandro González Iñárritu will be presented to 3000 attending film lovers by its star and SFF’s honorary guest this year, Gael Garcia Bernal, as the Opening Film of SFF at the HT Eronet Open Air Cinema.

‘This is a great opportunity to experience a film that was a milestone and started a new wave of Mexican cinema, as well as to discover the new currents of a vibrant Mexican cinematographic landscape’ says Purivatra.

A Mexican reception is scheduled to kick off the industry activities. Here the Mexican guests will have a chance to network with the filmmakers and film professionals from other countries as well as other guests of the SFF.

The full extent of the programme for both the industry and the public will be available on the SFF webpage and will be continuously updated.

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