SELECTION Boca vieja Documentary, First FilmDir. Yovegami Ascona Mora Production: Mónica Cruz Arcos, Yovegami Ascona MoraProduction Company: Duermevela AudiovisualIn a small town of fishermen and peasants in southern Mexico, the residents remember the struggle to defend their territory 30 years ago. Now, they are owners of the sea, their land, and their time, and the feeling of freedom fills them with pride. However, every year, with the arrival of the rains, nature reclaims its place. It is a portrait of the fortitude and fragility of the human condition. Formas de atravesar un territorio DocumentaryDir. Gabriela Domínguez RuvalcabaProduction: Pía Quintana EncisoProduction Companies: Bosquenegro, Estudio ErranteDo we belong to a place, or does a place belong to us? A documentary filmmaker and a family of shepherdesses, the main characters of this story, will braid the answers to this question in a documentary essay about identity, landscape transformation, and filmmaking. La libertad de Fierro DocumentaryDir. Santiago EsteinouProduction: Santiago EsteinouCésar has just obtained his freedom and needs to rebuild his life after spending 40 years sentenced to death by mistake. He spent most of his life in the Polunsky Unit, a prison that keeps inmates in total isolation, deprived of any contact with other human beings. His arrival in Mexico is the beginning of a healing journey. His new life faces him with his limitations, but he is determined to find true freedom. La Raya FictionDir. Yolanda CruzProduction: Yolanda Cruz, Isael Gutiérrez, Christine Dávila, Norma SantiagoProduction Company: Petate FilmsLa Raya is a contemporary story about life in a Chatino village, and the effects migration has on it. Sotera Santos is the main character. She is an eleven-year-old girl who was sent from Alabama to La Raya, her parents' hometown, to be cared for by her grandmother since her parents, both migrants, divorced. Los sueños que compartimos DocumentaryDir. Valentina Leduc NavarroProduction: Bertha Navarro, Alejandro Springall, Carolina Coppel, Eduardo Díaz CasanovaProduction Company: Salamandra Producciones, S.A. de C.V.Mayan native communities cross the Atlantic 500 years after the conquest of America to dialogue with communities acting in defense of territory, water, rivers, and forests in Germany, Spain, and Mexico. The journey and the encounters between these communities intertwine to form a collective voice that, despite the distances and their singularities, shares the intent of protecting life on the planet. Louis Riel ou le ciel touche la terre (Louis Riel or Heaven Touches The Earth) FictionDir. Matías MeyerProduction: Matías MeyerProduction Company: Luc, la películaOn August 1, 1885, in Regina, Saskatchewan, the Metis leader Louis Riel (1844-1885) was unfairly condemned to death for high treason by the Canadian Confederation. We accompany him on his Via Crucis from the day of his sentence to the day of his execution, November 16, 1885. Tus dos muertos FictionDir. Daniel Castro ZimbrónProduction: Víctor Léycegui, Arturo Martinelli, Luis Arenas, Pablo ZimbrónProduction Companies: Varios Lobos, Mil Millones Cine, La Claqueta PC, Matruska Films, Maligno GorehouseCipriano Zuzunaga is a 60-year-old judicial police officer who has seen his best days go by and lives in a depression that keeps him wandering and tormented. When the unrecognized son of a famous congressman is kidnapped, Zuzunaga becomes the cold and unpunished person in charge of conducting a solitary investigation that will end up confronting him with his past. PANEL OF EXPERTS Carlos A. Gutiérrez Carlos is co-founding executive director of Cinema Tropical, the media arts non-profit organization, which is the leading presenter of Latin American cinema in the U.S. As a guest curator, he has presented several series at numerous institutions such as The Museum of Modern Art, Film at Lincoln Center, the Guggenheim Museum, BAM Film, and Anthology Film Archives. In 2007, he co-curated the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar and currently serves as artistic director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s Latin Wave film festival, and as co-director of Cinema Tucsón. He sits in Film Forum’s Board of Directors and has served as a juror for various film festivals including Tribeca, Mar del Plata, New Orleans, Morelia, Seattle, and SANFIC. He has served as both expert nominator and panelist for the Sundance Documentary Fund, Tribeca Film Institute’s Latin America Media Arts Fund, and the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. Cédric Succivalli Cédric Succivalli is a programmer and film critic. He studied under Positif editor-in-chief Michel Ciment and graduated with a Master’s thesis on My Own Private Idaho by Gus Van Sant and a thesis on David Cronenberg’s Crash at the University of Paris VII.He subsequently taught French and cinema at the University of Bath and UWE Bristol and worked for Arte France Cinéma as part of the film funding committee as a screenplay consultant.He has served as President of the International Cinephile Society for nineteen years, and during that time he has been regularly attending and writing about festivals around the world. He has served on juries at the Noir In Fest, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Morelia, Göteborg, Cairo, Rome, Lecce, Istanbul, San Sebastián, Thessaloniki, Bilbao and the 2023 Queer Palm at Festival de Cannes. In 2018 he became a programmer for the Giornate degli Autori sidebar section of the Venice Film Festival and in 2023 he also joined the programming team of the Red Sea International Film Festival. He is the guest curator of the 22nd Ciclo Rosa LGBTI+ Film Festival at the Bogotá Cinemateca.He is a member of the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics (SFCC), L’Académie des Lumières, FIPRESCI, and a Golden Globe Awards international voter. Claudia G. Covarrubias Mexican filmmaker graduated from the National School of Film Arts (formerly CUEC) and a BA in Communication Sciences. Currently, she is pursuing a master's degree in Documentary Film at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). With German filmmaker Doris Dörrie, she studied at the Creative Writing Workshop in Berlin and actor's direction with Argentinean director Natalia Smirnoff. Furthermore, she completed a specialization in documentary film at the Filmart Center in Serbia and in Content Development at the Universidad Javeriana in Colombia.Claudia has directed and produced feature films, documentary series, short films, and advertising. Her projects were exhibited at festivals in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, the United States, Germany, and the UK. During her career as a filmmaker, she has participated in screenwriting and project development workshops at the Mexican Institute of Cinematography and DocsMx Documentary Film Festival. She won first place in the Escribe Cine A.C. Screenwriting Tournament and was a finalist in the Guanajuato International Film Festival's screenwriting contest. She was awarded three times by the National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA).She is a founder member of Cine Bajo el Cielo, a civil organization that promotes the creation and exhibition of films with social and gender perspective in rural and urban communities in Mexico. She is currently Director of Production and Marketing at the Estudios Churubusco Azteca, a prestigious company in the film industry with more than seventy years of experience. John Cooper Director Emeritus, Sundance Film Festival.For three decades Cooper was a member of the Sundance Film Festival programming team. In the early years, he moved from a programmer to the Director of Programming before eventually being named director in 2010.From 2010 to 2020, he oversaw all aspects of the annual Sundance Film Festival in addition to expanding ventures to Sundance Film Festival: London, Sundance Film Festival: Hong Kong, and the Ignite Program for young talent 18-25.Other work includes guest curator and juror at major festivals around the world. From 1995-1998 Cooper also served as director of Outfest held annually in Los Angeles. In 2020 he was accepted into the Academy of Motion Pictures.Currently he is co-host with Tabitha Jackson on the podcast The Film That Blew My Mind. José Tamez Jose Tamez is Salma Hayek’s partner in their production company, Ventanarosa, where he also serves as President. Ventanarosa has produced among other titles: Frida, Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, In the Time of the Butterflies, and the TV series Monarca and Santa Evita. Tamez also executive produced the film Beatriz at Dinner, written by Mike White.He is currently working on the film Seesaw Monster, a co-production with Akiva Goldsman and starring Anne Hathaway and Hayek. Ventanarosa has also produced a couple of movies in Mexico: Quiero tu vida and the upcoming El sabor de la Navidad.Ventanarosa’s movies and TV shows have been the recipient of all kind of Awards, including Oscars, Emmys, Peabody, and Golden Globes. Ralph McKay Ralph McKay established and programmed the Film Department at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston from 1976 to 1989. In 1989, he moved to New York to program for Anthology Film Archives. While in NYC, he also worked for The Jewish Museum, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the Film Department at Brooklyn College and The Andrea Frank Foundation. Other projects include programs for ICA Cinema London, Sarajevo, Ascona and Nantucket film festivals, Swiss Films and Artists Space NYC. His article on Kurt Kren’s years in Texas was published by PVS Verleger, Vienna. Ralph’s production credits include River of Grass, Jonas in the Desert, Nico Icon and Far Marfa. In 2004, he returned to Texas to direct Cinematexas before moving to Marfa in 2006.Since 1996 he has been a program advisor to International Film Festival Rotterdam for North American works. Thomas Rosso Thomas Rosso has been Program Manager of Cannes’ Semaine de la Critique and Next Step workshops’ director since 2020.He has worked in the cinema industry for twenty years: theatrical and home video distributor at Why Not Productions, programmer at the Cinéma du Panthéon, film restorer at L'Image Retrouvée laboratory, teaching assistant at La Fémis… He also coordinated during 10 years the “Film School Village” workshop, ancestor of Les Arcs Film Festival’s Talent Village. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Special Mention: Boca vieja by Yovegami Ascona.José María Riba Award bestowed by Cinépolis Distribución and PROFEST 2023: La libertad de Fierro by Santiago Esteinou.Estudios Churubusco Azteca Award: Formas de atravesar un territorio by Gabriela Domínguez Ruvalcaba.Splendor Omnia Studio Award: Los sueños que compartimos by Valentina Leduc.Splendor Omnia Studio Award: La libertad de Fierro by Santiago Esteinou.
SELECTION Boca vieja Documentary, First FilmDir. Yovegami Ascona Mora Production: Mónica Cruz Arcos, Yovegami Ascona MoraProduction Company: Duermevela AudiovisualIn a small town of fishermen and peasants in southern Mexico, the residents remember the struggle to defend their territory 30 years ago. Now, they are owners of the sea, their land, and their time, and the feeling of freedom fills them with pride. However, every year, with the arrival of the rains, nature reclaims its place. It is a portrait of the fortitude and fragility of the human condition. Formas de atravesar un territorio DocumentaryDir. Gabriela Domínguez RuvalcabaProduction: Pía Quintana EncisoProduction Companies: Bosquenegro, Estudio ErranteDo we belong to a place, or does a place belong to us? A documentary filmmaker and a family of shepherdesses, the main characters of this story, will braid the answers to this question in a documentary essay about identity, landscape transformation, and filmmaking. La libertad de Fierro DocumentaryDir. Santiago EsteinouProduction: Santiago EsteinouCésar has just obtained his freedom and needs to rebuild his life after spending 40 years sentenced to death by mistake. He spent most of his life in the Polunsky Unit, a prison that keeps inmates in total isolation, deprived of any contact with other human beings. His arrival in Mexico is the beginning of a healing journey. His new life faces him with his limitations, but he is determined to find true freedom. La Raya FictionDir. Yolanda CruzProduction: Yolanda Cruz, Isael Gutiérrez, Christine Dávila, Norma SantiagoProduction Company: Petate FilmsLa Raya is a contemporary story about life in a Chatino village, and the effects migration has on it. Sotera Santos is the main character. She is an eleven-year-old girl who was sent from Alabama to La Raya, her parents' hometown, to be cared for by her grandmother since her parents, both migrants, divorced. Los sueños que compartimos DocumentaryDir. Valentina Leduc NavarroProduction: Bertha Navarro, Alejandro Springall, Carolina Coppel, Eduardo Díaz CasanovaProduction Company: Salamandra Producciones, S.A. de C.V.Mayan native communities cross the Atlantic 500 years after the conquest of America to dialogue with communities acting in defense of territory, water, rivers, and forests in Germany, Spain, and Mexico. The journey and the encounters between these communities intertwine to form a collective voice that, despite the distances and their singularities, shares the intent of protecting life on the planet. Louis Riel ou le ciel touche la terre (Louis Riel or Heaven Touches The Earth) FictionDir. Matías MeyerProduction: Matías MeyerProduction Company: Luc, la películaOn August 1, 1885, in Regina, Saskatchewan, the Metis leader Louis Riel (1844-1885) was unfairly condemned to death for high treason by the Canadian Confederation. We accompany him on his Via Crucis from the day of his sentence to the day of his execution, November 16, 1885. Tus dos muertos FictionDir. Daniel Castro ZimbrónProduction: Víctor Léycegui, Arturo Martinelli, Luis Arenas, Pablo ZimbrónProduction Companies: Varios Lobos, Mil Millones Cine, La Claqueta PC, Matruska Films, Maligno GorehouseCipriano Zuzunaga is a 60-year-old judicial police officer who has seen his best days go by and lives in a depression that keeps him wandering and tormented. When the unrecognized son of a famous congressman is kidnapped, Zuzunaga becomes the cold and unpunished person in charge of conducting a solitary investigation that will end up confronting him with his past.
Boca vieja Documentary, First FilmDir. Yovegami Ascona Mora Production: Mónica Cruz Arcos, Yovegami Ascona MoraProduction Company: Duermevela AudiovisualIn a small town of fishermen and peasants in southern Mexico, the residents remember the struggle to defend their territory 30 years ago. Now, they are owners of the sea, their land, and their time, and the feeling of freedom fills them with pride. However, every year, with the arrival of the rains, nature reclaims its place. It is a portrait of the fortitude and fragility of the human condition.
Formas de atravesar un territorio DocumentaryDir. Gabriela Domínguez RuvalcabaProduction: Pía Quintana EncisoProduction Companies: Bosquenegro, Estudio ErranteDo we belong to a place, or does a place belong to us? A documentary filmmaker and a family of shepherdesses, the main characters of this story, will braid the answers to this question in a documentary essay about identity, landscape transformation, and filmmaking.
La libertad de Fierro DocumentaryDir. Santiago EsteinouProduction: Santiago EsteinouCésar has just obtained his freedom and needs to rebuild his life after spending 40 years sentenced to death by mistake. He spent most of his life in the Polunsky Unit, a prison that keeps inmates in total isolation, deprived of any contact with other human beings. His arrival in Mexico is the beginning of a healing journey. His new life faces him with his limitations, but he is determined to find true freedom.
La Raya FictionDir. Yolanda CruzProduction: Yolanda Cruz, Isael Gutiérrez, Christine Dávila, Norma SantiagoProduction Company: Petate FilmsLa Raya is a contemporary story about life in a Chatino village, and the effects migration has on it. Sotera Santos is the main character. She is an eleven-year-old girl who was sent from Alabama to La Raya, her parents' hometown, to be cared for by her grandmother since her parents, both migrants, divorced.
Los sueños que compartimos DocumentaryDir. Valentina Leduc NavarroProduction: Bertha Navarro, Alejandro Springall, Carolina Coppel, Eduardo Díaz CasanovaProduction Company: Salamandra Producciones, S.A. de C.V.Mayan native communities cross the Atlantic 500 years after the conquest of America to dialogue with communities acting in defense of territory, water, rivers, and forests in Germany, Spain, and Mexico. The journey and the encounters between these communities intertwine to form a collective voice that, despite the distances and their singularities, shares the intent of protecting life on the planet.
Louis Riel ou le ciel touche la terre (Louis Riel or Heaven Touches The Earth) FictionDir. Matías MeyerProduction: Matías MeyerProduction Company: Luc, la películaOn August 1, 1885, in Regina, Saskatchewan, the Metis leader Louis Riel (1844-1885) was unfairly condemned to death for high treason by the Canadian Confederation. We accompany him on his Via Crucis from the day of his sentence to the day of his execution, November 16, 1885.
Tus dos muertos FictionDir. Daniel Castro ZimbrónProduction: Víctor Léycegui, Arturo Martinelli, Luis Arenas, Pablo ZimbrónProduction Companies: Varios Lobos, Mil Millones Cine, La Claqueta PC, Matruska Films, Maligno GorehouseCipriano Zuzunaga is a 60-year-old judicial police officer who has seen his best days go by and lives in a depression that keeps him wandering and tormented. When the unrecognized son of a famous congressman is kidnapped, Zuzunaga becomes the cold and unpunished person in charge of conducting a solitary investigation that will end up confronting him with his past.
PANEL OF EXPERTS Carlos A. Gutiérrez Carlos is co-founding executive director of Cinema Tropical, the media arts non-profit organization, which is the leading presenter of Latin American cinema in the U.S. As a guest curator, he has presented several series at numerous institutions such as The Museum of Modern Art, Film at Lincoln Center, the Guggenheim Museum, BAM Film, and Anthology Film Archives. In 2007, he co-curated the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar and currently serves as artistic director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s Latin Wave film festival, and as co-director of Cinema Tucsón. He sits in Film Forum’s Board of Directors and has served as a juror for various film festivals including Tribeca, Mar del Plata, New Orleans, Morelia, Seattle, and SANFIC. He has served as both expert nominator and panelist for the Sundance Documentary Fund, Tribeca Film Institute’s Latin America Media Arts Fund, and the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. Cédric Succivalli Cédric Succivalli is a programmer and film critic. He studied under Positif editor-in-chief Michel Ciment and graduated with a Master’s thesis on My Own Private Idaho by Gus Van Sant and a thesis on David Cronenberg’s Crash at the University of Paris VII.He subsequently taught French and cinema at the University of Bath and UWE Bristol and worked for Arte France Cinéma as part of the film funding committee as a screenplay consultant.He has served as President of the International Cinephile Society for nineteen years, and during that time he has been regularly attending and writing about festivals around the world. He has served on juries at the Noir In Fest, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Morelia, Göteborg, Cairo, Rome, Lecce, Istanbul, San Sebastián, Thessaloniki, Bilbao and the 2023 Queer Palm at Festival de Cannes. In 2018 he became a programmer for the Giornate degli Autori sidebar section of the Venice Film Festival and in 2023 he also joined the programming team of the Red Sea International Film Festival. He is the guest curator of the 22nd Ciclo Rosa LGBTI+ Film Festival at the Bogotá Cinemateca.He is a member of the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics (SFCC), L’Académie des Lumières, FIPRESCI, and a Golden Globe Awards international voter. Claudia G. Covarrubias Mexican filmmaker graduated from the National School of Film Arts (formerly CUEC) and a BA in Communication Sciences. Currently, she is pursuing a master's degree in Documentary Film at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). With German filmmaker Doris Dörrie, she studied at the Creative Writing Workshop in Berlin and actor's direction with Argentinean director Natalia Smirnoff. Furthermore, she completed a specialization in documentary film at the Filmart Center in Serbia and in Content Development at the Universidad Javeriana in Colombia.Claudia has directed and produced feature films, documentary series, short films, and advertising. Her projects were exhibited at festivals in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, the United States, Germany, and the UK. During her career as a filmmaker, she has participated in screenwriting and project development workshops at the Mexican Institute of Cinematography and DocsMx Documentary Film Festival. She won first place in the Escribe Cine A.C. Screenwriting Tournament and was a finalist in the Guanajuato International Film Festival's screenwriting contest. She was awarded three times by the National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA).She is a founder member of Cine Bajo el Cielo, a civil organization that promotes the creation and exhibition of films with social and gender perspective in rural and urban communities in Mexico. She is currently Director of Production and Marketing at the Estudios Churubusco Azteca, a prestigious company in the film industry with more than seventy years of experience. John Cooper Director Emeritus, Sundance Film Festival.For three decades Cooper was a member of the Sundance Film Festival programming team. In the early years, he moved from a programmer to the Director of Programming before eventually being named director in 2010.From 2010 to 2020, he oversaw all aspects of the annual Sundance Film Festival in addition to expanding ventures to Sundance Film Festival: London, Sundance Film Festival: Hong Kong, and the Ignite Program for young talent 18-25.Other work includes guest curator and juror at major festivals around the world. From 1995-1998 Cooper also served as director of Outfest held annually in Los Angeles. In 2020 he was accepted into the Academy of Motion Pictures.Currently he is co-host with Tabitha Jackson on the podcast The Film That Blew My Mind. José Tamez Jose Tamez is Salma Hayek’s partner in their production company, Ventanarosa, where he also serves as President. Ventanarosa has produced among other titles: Frida, Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, In the Time of the Butterflies, and the TV series Monarca and Santa Evita. Tamez also executive produced the film Beatriz at Dinner, written by Mike White.He is currently working on the film Seesaw Monster, a co-production with Akiva Goldsman and starring Anne Hathaway and Hayek. Ventanarosa has also produced a couple of movies in Mexico: Quiero tu vida and the upcoming El sabor de la Navidad.Ventanarosa’s movies and TV shows have been the recipient of all kind of Awards, including Oscars, Emmys, Peabody, and Golden Globes. Ralph McKay Ralph McKay established and programmed the Film Department at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston from 1976 to 1989. In 1989, he moved to New York to program for Anthology Film Archives. While in NYC, he also worked for The Jewish Museum, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the Film Department at Brooklyn College and The Andrea Frank Foundation. Other projects include programs for ICA Cinema London, Sarajevo, Ascona and Nantucket film festivals, Swiss Films and Artists Space NYC. His article on Kurt Kren’s years in Texas was published by PVS Verleger, Vienna. Ralph’s production credits include River of Grass, Jonas in the Desert, Nico Icon and Far Marfa. In 2004, he returned to Texas to direct Cinematexas before moving to Marfa in 2006.Since 1996 he has been a program advisor to International Film Festival Rotterdam for North American works. Thomas Rosso Thomas Rosso has been Program Manager of Cannes’ Semaine de la Critique and Next Step workshops’ director since 2020.He has worked in the cinema industry for twenty years: theatrical and home video distributor at Why Not Productions, programmer at the Cinéma du Panthéon, film restorer at L'Image Retrouvée laboratory, teaching assistant at La Fémis… He also coordinated during 10 years the “Film School Village” workshop, ancestor of Les Arcs Film Festival’s Talent Village.
Carlos A. Gutiérrez Carlos is co-founding executive director of Cinema Tropical, the media arts non-profit organization, which is the leading presenter of Latin American cinema in the U.S. As a guest curator, he has presented several series at numerous institutions such as The Museum of Modern Art, Film at Lincoln Center, the Guggenheim Museum, BAM Film, and Anthology Film Archives. In 2007, he co-curated the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar and currently serves as artistic director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s Latin Wave film festival, and as co-director of Cinema Tucsón. He sits in Film Forum’s Board of Directors and has served as a juror for various film festivals including Tribeca, Mar del Plata, New Orleans, Morelia, Seattle, and SANFIC. He has served as both expert nominator and panelist for the Sundance Documentary Fund, Tribeca Film Institute’s Latin America Media Arts Fund, and the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.
Cédric Succivalli Cédric Succivalli is a programmer and film critic. He studied under Positif editor-in-chief Michel Ciment and graduated with a Master’s thesis on My Own Private Idaho by Gus Van Sant and a thesis on David Cronenberg’s Crash at the University of Paris VII.He subsequently taught French and cinema at the University of Bath and UWE Bristol and worked for Arte France Cinéma as part of the film funding committee as a screenplay consultant.He has served as President of the International Cinephile Society for nineteen years, and during that time he has been regularly attending and writing about festivals around the world. He has served on juries at the Noir In Fest, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Morelia, Göteborg, Cairo, Rome, Lecce, Istanbul, San Sebastián, Thessaloniki, Bilbao and the 2023 Queer Palm at Festival de Cannes. In 2018 he became a programmer for the Giornate degli Autori sidebar section of the Venice Film Festival and in 2023 he also joined the programming team of the Red Sea International Film Festival. He is the guest curator of the 22nd Ciclo Rosa LGBTI+ Film Festival at the Bogotá Cinemateca.He is a member of the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics (SFCC), L’Académie des Lumières, FIPRESCI, and a Golden Globe Awards international voter.
Claudia G. Covarrubias Mexican filmmaker graduated from the National School of Film Arts (formerly CUEC) and a BA in Communication Sciences. Currently, she is pursuing a master's degree in Documentary Film at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). With German filmmaker Doris Dörrie, she studied at the Creative Writing Workshop in Berlin and actor's direction with Argentinean director Natalia Smirnoff. Furthermore, she completed a specialization in documentary film at the Filmart Center in Serbia and in Content Development at the Universidad Javeriana in Colombia.Claudia has directed and produced feature films, documentary series, short films, and advertising. Her projects were exhibited at festivals in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, the United States, Germany, and the UK. During her career as a filmmaker, she has participated in screenwriting and project development workshops at the Mexican Institute of Cinematography and DocsMx Documentary Film Festival. She won first place in the Escribe Cine A.C. Screenwriting Tournament and was a finalist in the Guanajuato International Film Festival's screenwriting contest. She was awarded three times by the National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA).She is a founder member of Cine Bajo el Cielo, a civil organization that promotes the creation and exhibition of films with social and gender perspective in rural and urban communities in Mexico. She is currently Director of Production and Marketing at the Estudios Churubusco Azteca, a prestigious company in the film industry with more than seventy years of experience.
John Cooper Director Emeritus, Sundance Film Festival.For three decades Cooper was a member of the Sundance Film Festival programming team. In the early years, he moved from a programmer to the Director of Programming before eventually being named director in 2010.From 2010 to 2020, he oversaw all aspects of the annual Sundance Film Festival in addition to expanding ventures to Sundance Film Festival: London, Sundance Film Festival: Hong Kong, and the Ignite Program for young talent 18-25.Other work includes guest curator and juror at major festivals around the world. From 1995-1998 Cooper also served as director of Outfest held annually in Los Angeles. In 2020 he was accepted into the Academy of Motion Pictures.Currently he is co-host with Tabitha Jackson on the podcast The Film That Blew My Mind.
José Tamez Jose Tamez is Salma Hayek’s partner in their production company, Ventanarosa, where he also serves as President. Ventanarosa has produced among other titles: Frida, Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, In the Time of the Butterflies, and the TV series Monarca and Santa Evita. Tamez also executive produced the film Beatriz at Dinner, written by Mike White.He is currently working on the film Seesaw Monster, a co-production with Akiva Goldsman and starring Anne Hathaway and Hayek. Ventanarosa has also produced a couple of movies in Mexico: Quiero tu vida and the upcoming El sabor de la Navidad.Ventanarosa’s movies and TV shows have been the recipient of all kind of Awards, including Oscars, Emmys, Peabody, and Golden Globes.
Ralph McKay Ralph McKay established and programmed the Film Department at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston from 1976 to 1989. In 1989, he moved to New York to program for Anthology Film Archives. While in NYC, he also worked for The Jewish Museum, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the Film Department at Brooklyn College and The Andrea Frank Foundation. Other projects include programs for ICA Cinema London, Sarajevo, Ascona and Nantucket film festivals, Swiss Films and Artists Space NYC. His article on Kurt Kren’s years in Texas was published by PVS Verleger, Vienna. Ralph’s production credits include River of Grass, Jonas in the Desert, Nico Icon and Far Marfa. In 2004, he returned to Texas to direct Cinematexas before moving to Marfa in 2006.Since 1996 he has been a program advisor to International Film Festival Rotterdam for North American works.
Thomas Rosso Thomas Rosso has been Program Manager of Cannes’ Semaine de la Critique and Next Step workshops’ director since 2020.He has worked in the cinema industry for twenty years: theatrical and home video distributor at Why Not Productions, programmer at the Cinéma du Panthéon, film restorer at L'Image Retrouvée laboratory, teaching assistant at La Fémis… He also coordinated during 10 years the “Film School Village” workshop, ancestor of Les Arcs Film Festival’s Talent Village.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Special Mention: Boca vieja by Yovegami Ascona.José María Riba Award bestowed by Cinépolis Distribución and PROFEST 2023: La libertad de Fierro by Santiago Esteinou.Estudios Churubusco Azteca Award: Formas de atravesar un territorio by Gabriela Domínguez Ruvalcaba.Splendor Omnia Studio Award: Los sueños que compartimos by Valentina Leduc.Splendor Omnia Studio Award: La libertad de Fierro by Santiago Esteinou.
