VERDICT: The head of the Mexican Film Institute on how IMCINE has fostered the growing number of women filmmakers in Mexico and on the launch of TFV’s Spanish language review page, Cine Verdict.
María Novaro, director of the Mexican Film Institute, IMCINE, is a renowned Mexican filmmaker who has made six feature films and fourteen short films, working as director, screenwriter, cinematographer and editor. She was awarded the Ariel and Coral prizes for Lola (1989), Danzón (1991), The Garden of Eden (1994) and Good Herbs (2008). Leaving No Trace won the Best Latin American Film Award at Sundance in 2001. She recently spoke to Patricia Boero of TFV’s Cine Verdict.
As director of IMCINE, the Mexican Film Institute, I now have the opportunity to support a diverse range of filmmakers and themes that will enrich our long tradition of film production.
I’m proud and excited that the participation of women filmmakers within our Mexican film industry is now more prevalent than when I started out, as seen in the recent Morelia and Guadalajara film festivals. Women have taken on such a broad range of topics, styles, and genres and play crucial roles also on the technical side of filmmaking. IMCINE has for the last few years actively encouraged inclusive policies and attempted to decentralize film production. The result is evident in the number of films now being made by indigenous women in their own languages, as well as Afro-descendants.
I congratulate and welcome Cine Verdict as a strategy to widen readership and viewership of independent films from Mexico, Latin America and around the world. Spanish is spoken by millions, not just in Spain and Latin America, but everywhere immigrants and people interested in our culture reside. Film critics have written in Spanish within the confines of the printed press, so a portal such as Cine Verdict will make film reviews more accessible beyond borders and publishing deadlines.
