Our new face

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

15th Austin Film Festival

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

A look back at 2008

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:

Catalogues...

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!

Out of the Workshop

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.

Getting ready...

Less than a month away from opening night, we´re living a snowstorm of activity. The invitations have to be sent, the adverts will start to appear in the media, the press conferences... And we´re very excited about it all.

Luis Garza our programming director has done a great job getting some of the best films available this year, watching all of the 1850 entries and now confines his attention to the computer screen as he follows up on the way the 194 films from 31 countries are traveling to Monterrey.

We should have our program online next week so you can begin to plan which films are completely UNMISSABLE!!!

This weekend a promotional program with some of the films that will be showing at the festival will be distributed at all MMCinemas in Monterrey and at the Nuevo León Cinematheque.

While you were sending your Indiana Jones outfit to dry cleaning...

-Our call for entries for the Audience Jury was announced. The community of the State of Nuevo Leon can apply for a place in this important new festival section by sending an email to info@monterreyfilmfestival.com

-We have recieved some rather peculiar stuff wrapping the screener copies of your competition features and short films. But that's another whole different post coming soon.

-We've been watching many many films and the material for this year sections is promising and edgy.

-We have a brand new front entrance look. We like it but it's a "see trough" layer and we can not watch porn without some passers by noticing it.

-India, South Afrifa, Turkmenistán and New Zenald are the most distant places of those than we have received material.