The Guanajuato International Film Festival and the Mexican Film Institute, in keeping with the spirit that motivates both institutions and our commitment to nurturing and supporting diversity, creativity and fresh new developments in Mexico and the world, are proud to present this, the 9th installment of our Bilateral Forum, aimed at creating an open space for collaboration among the international film community. This time around the Forum will include the participation of film industry representatives from Japan and Mexico, who will come together to explore opportunity areas that will enable them to strengthen and create new spaces. Recent years have also seen an interest in co-production and cooperation between both countries, a trend that GIFF and IMCINE, along with our Japanese colleagues and counterparts, wish to strengthen and support.
As part of this effort to enrich our industries, we are proud to have with us institutions dedicated to education, production, direction and writing for digital platforms. These distinguished guests represent the strong creative impulse enjoyed by this remarkable country and symbolize the present and future of cinematography itself. The Japanese and Mexican film industries, having developed under starkly different conditions, present interesting differences in their approach towards the challenges of production, distribution and exhibition both within and beyond national borders, and their approach towards supporting the next generation of filmmakers, areas that can allow both partners to come up with imaginative and practicable solutions which, along with a certain degree of joint effort and cooperation, will allow both our film industries to grow, develop, and to capture the collective imagination of the world.

We will promote a space to share and identify the differences and similarities in each country’s film production process. This conversation will open up an exchange of ideas to stimulate filmmaking in both industries.