The federal official explained, in tweets addressed to Guillermo del Toro, that cinema “is a discipline that is directly supported with more resources than any other and we do it with the responsibility that this expenditure of public resources deserves.”
Frausto said that last year in Mexico 259 films were produced, “a historic figure and with unprecedented content because materials from native peoples and indigenous languages are supported, highlighting gender work, with the children of the most wounded communities of our country”.
The official explained that the support is being decentralized, paying attention to bringing the resources to those who need them most, not only “where they already have it and with whom they received everything.”
According to the Ministry of Culture, in Mexico there are 12 Creative Film Seedbeds in the country, which are true schools for future filmmakers where this art is inculcated from childhood in historically vulnerable communities.
These Seedbeds are located in the municipalities of Tijuana, Durango, San Luis de la Paz, El Barrio de la Soledad, Santos Reyes Yucuná, Querétaro, Guasave, Victoria, Ixtenco, Santa Ana Nopalucan, Mérida and one in Mexico City.
The official assured that the support for the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences (AMACC) is maintained and the doors are open.
“Since the beginning of this administration, the dialogue with the Academy has been permanent, both to continue its operation at Casa Buñuel – delivered on loan to the Academy and from which the Ministry of Culture absorbs service and maintenance expenses. for their application to the calls in their daily dissemination and academic work, and for the annual awards of the Ariel Awards”, he explained.
“Support for Mexican cinema is not limited to collaboration with a trade association, it goes much further and the numbers are compelling,” he said.
This week, after the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences (AMACC) officially announced that it has decided to suspend the call and registration processes for the Ariel Award 2023, until further notice, due to going through “a serious financial crisis”, figures Mexican companies in the industry spoke out against decisions by the government headed by Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The Mexican Academy pointed out that “the State has renounced its responsibility as the main promoter and disseminator of culture in general and of cinema in particular.”
Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro opined that “the systematic destruction of Mexican cinema and its institutions – which took decades to build – has been brutal.”
“We survived the six-year term of López Portillo, but this is unprecedented,” he added.
The systematic destruction of Mexican Cinema and its institutions – which took decades to build – has been brutal. We survived Lopez Portllo’s six-year term but this is unprecedented.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT)
November 25, 2022
The actor Joaquín Cosío said that “López Obrador and the 4T withdraw support from the Mexican Academy, as expected they do not understand culture or art. ignorant. There is no other word.”
Before, the AMACC regretted that despite its 76 years of existence and the political will with which the Academy was refounded in its new era, under the presidency of teacher Jorge Fons, “the support of public resources has decreased considerably in the last years”.
“During the coming months, the AMACC will redirect its efforts to reorganize the work through its different commissions, seeking to give viability and financial certainty to the academic activities carried out throughout the year and to the delivery of the Ariel,” he said.
The Academy called on all sectors to close ranks to strengthen cohesion within the film industry and to continue defending, as well as strengthening, this and other spaces for free and independent reflection on Mexican cinema.
