A few days before the end of 2024, the National Cineteca reports attendance at its three headquarters – the main one in spectators.
This record, despite the addition of two more venues, is below the record attendance year, which was 2019, at the then only venue in Xoco, when the estimated influx of 1,300,000 people was reported.
These details were communicated this Tuesday in the annual activity report of the National Cinematheque, headed by its new director, Marina Stavenhagen; the head of Broadcasting and Programming, Nelson Carro; the director of Acervos, Edgar Torres; and the head of Administration and Finance, Vicente Cázares.
There, Nelson Carro announced that this year, discounting the festivals, respective festivals and cycles, considering only premieres and re-releases, the National Cineteca screened 275 titles, of which 118 were Mexican, that is, a proportion of 42% for films. national.
The most watched film of the year was My Friend the Robot, by the Spanish director Pablo Berger, whose screenings were attended by almost 100,000 spectators, making it the highest-grossing film for the Cineteca “in at least the last 20 years”, say Carro.
Particularly, regarding Mexican cinema, it was detailed that the film with the greatest attendance was Pedro Páramo, the adaptation of the famous novel by Juan Rulfo directed by Rodrigo Prieto in his debut film. It is followed by the new feature film by multi-award-winning Alonso Ruizpalacios, The Kitchen, still on display.
There is no date for Chapultepec
Regarding the third headquarters in the fourth section of the Chapultepec Forest, partially inaugurated last September and still awaiting completion, Stavenhagen stated: “unfortunately, the management of this work has not depended on a single institution but on the competition of several”.
He added that since it involves the coordination of several wills and budgets, “its conclusion has been slower than everyone expected. It is already operating, that is, there are already functions at that headquarters, but there are still many details missing that have to do with access, parking, common areas, especially those shared with the CCC, the INBAL schools and the large warehouses. that will be there. “There are still a few weeks (for the full opening).”
Likewise, he stated that along with the progress in civil works in Chapultepec, internally the Cineteca team is working on “a critical path” to “gradually start operations”, so he could not offer an approximate date for the total opening of said enclosure.
Regarding the decline in attendance and also the lack of evidence of important exhibitions in the main gallery of the National Cinematheque, the director stated:
“It is not a mystery to anyone that the pandemic affected the entire exhibition sector in Mexico, all cinemas. The Cineteca, like all spaces, suffered enormously with that setback, because it implied a budget problem for those years. All this is gradually recovering. Then came the opening of the headquarters in Cenart, which also required budget and personnel. That is why, little by little, the enormous activity that the Cineteca had before has been reconstituted, including the gallery exhibitions. Large exhibitions are already being managed for the months and years to come. We hope to have the resources to make that possible.”
The resource paradigm
Regarding the budget issue in 2025 for the Trust for the National Cinematheque, considering that for next year it will receive 46.9 million pesos in the Expenditure Budget of the Federation, which represents a decrease of 6% in real terms compared to last year Marina Stavenhagen explained:
“I am a member of a film community, and now the management has been very attentive to how the budget for next year has been configured. We are fortunate to have a sector head in the Ministry of Culture who has been very receptive to everyone’s concerns and who has responded, because it has led to a budget expansion. Let’s see how it is distributed. But at the Cineteca we feel confident that the resource will exist to launch the new son in Chapultepec.”
In this regard, the director of Administration and Finance, Vicente Cázares, offered details: “The budget assigned to us in the PEF is part of a whole, which is around 200 million pesos, with which the Cineteca operated this year. Of that amount, 25% only came from fiscal resources, meaning that the bulk of our income depends on the institution’s own activity (…) for the same reason, administratively, although the new year does affect us, we believe that we will have the ability to be able to get ahead with one’s own resources.”
