Published May 23, 2022

by JONATHAN ESLUI

In 1998 the expression in short film festival was held for the first time in Guanajuato, born of the need to make the short film visible; Likewise, it was wanted to give greater diffusion to Mexican cinema and show national and international productions that did not usually be exhibited in cinemas in the country, which led to a change since 2010, including documentary, animated and fiction feature films, changing to the Guanajuato International Film Festival (GIFF).

Currently, the festival is an annual must for moviegoers, film industry and tourists in León, Irapuato and San Miguel de Allende, as well as Guanajuato Capital in previous editions, with functions, red carpets, workshops, talks and other activities, all free and many taking place throughout the year. GIFF is characterized by screening feature films and short films from various countries that are also presented at the most prestigious film festivals globally, the result of the work of Nina Rodríguez, Director of Programming for 16 years. Likewise, these titles have a presence in the most important awards that recognize the best of the seventh art; in fact, the festival has been and is nominating for the Oscar, Goya and BAFTA.

In 2000, Alejandro G. Iñárritu was a talent who started and after presenting his debut film, Amores perros, in Cannes, he had his Mexican premiere in Expresión en Corto. In 2010, Leap Year of then-debutant Michael Rowe had its Mexican premiere at the festival, after winning the Golden Camera at Cannes and Submarine arrived before going through the film festivals of Toronto, London, Sundance and Berlin; that same year, 2021 Nomadland’s Oscar winner Chloé Zhao premiered her short film Daughters.

Victoria Mahoney’s Yelling to the Sky premiered in 2011 and the director is currently known for being the first woman to direct a Star Wars installment. Another film released that year was the Argentine Medianeras, winner of several awards including one at the Berlin Film Festival; its director, Gustavo Taretto, was previously at the Guanajuato meeting in 2005 with his homonymous short, winning Best Fiction Short Film on that occasion.

Searching for Sugar Man had its premiere in Mexico in Guanajuato in 2012 and then won the Oscar for Best Documentary, while Beasts Of The Southern Wild premiered in the same edition and won Best Feature Film First International, it was also present at the Academy Awards with four nominations, including Director and Best Film.

Today ryan Coogler’s name is known in Hollywood for directing Black Panther, but in 2013 he made his way with Fruitvale Station, the inaugural performance in San Miguel de Allende and winner of Best Feature Film International First Feature Film. A name already known was that of Nicolas Winding Refn, director of Only God Forgives, the closing function of the festival. That same year, Amat Escalante presented Heli as an inaugural performance in Guanajuato Capital after winning in Cannes and this case is very special considering that the filmmaker had his first approaches with the Guanajuato festival since its first edition, being very young, to then reach international recognition.

A Most Wanted Man by Anton Corbijn, director honored in 2014, was the inaugural film and this premiere in Mexico that came from Sundance allowed us to see on the big screen one of the last performances of Philip Seymour Hoffman. Mustang won an International Fiction Feature Film Mention in 2015 and was later nominated for an Oscar for Foreign Film, in addition to winning at the Goya Awards. Happy Hour by Ryüsuke Hamaguchi won Best International Fiction Feature Film in the 2016 edition and in the most recent Installment of the Oscar, the new film of said director, Drive my Car, had 4 nominations including Best Film and won Foreign Film. Fatih Akın was honored in 2017 and in the inaugural performance could be seen In the Fade, which previously won Best Actress at Cannes and later won the Golden Globe for Foreign Language Film.

In 2018 there was an important presence of Lebanese cinema and L’insulte premiered after being nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, that year there was also the premiere of Las herederas as an inaugural film in Guanajuato Capital, after triumphing at the Berlin Film Festival. In that edition, the Children in Action section had the short film One Small Step, nominated for the Oscar for Animated Short Film. And that time the closing film was Blindspotting by Carlos López Estrada, Mexican director who premiered his debut film in his country after causing a sensation at Sundance and who in the most recent edition of the Oscar was nominated for Best Animated Film for Raya and the Last Dragon, which he co-directed.

The 2019 Official Selection had the premiere of For Sama, which won Best International Documentary Feature Film for months later to be nominated for the Oscar for Documentary and win in the same category at the BAFTAs.

In 2020, months after winning the Grand Prize of the Generation Kplus section of the Berlin Film Festival, Los lobos by Samuel Kishi inaugurated the Guanajuato meeting in the format of autocinema and won Best Fiction Feature Film Mexico. Learning to skateboard in a Warzone (If you’re a girl), which had already won the Oscar for Documentary Short Film, premiered at GIFF in a special screening; for its part, the documentary short film and also nominated for the Oscar, Do not Split, premiered in the same way before the Mexican public.

The edition corresponding to 2021 presented Affairs of the Art, which won a Mention for Animated Short Film and was later nominated for an Oscar, while the Belgian film Un monde by filmmaker Laura Wandel won best International Fiction Feature Film in its Mexican premiere, which came after the recognition obtained at the Cannes Film Festival with the FIPRESCI Award (Un Certain Regard). The icing on the cake was being able to watch on the big screen Summer of Soul, the most recent documentary feature film to win the Oscar in its category.

The 25 titles mentioned are a clear example and a small part of an extensive program that in each edition focuses on proposals other than cinema that is usually shown commercially, are productions that can only be found at the Guanajuato International Film Festival, already known for being a dissemination space for those who seek to tell their stories on the big screen, which is also a promoter of both culture and entertainment and an important launching pad for cinema around the world, including of course the fact in Mexico.