Although Mexico has only one film in this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), it remains an important event for the Mexican film industry.

Monserrat Sánchez of the Mexican Institute of Cinematography (Imcine) says the Toronto event opens access to the United States market. And while there is only one Mexican film, there are several others in which Mexico had a role in the form of co-production, or representation by Mexicans.

“There are more co-productions each time, alliances between Mexico and other countries, that multiply the benefits for film nominations,” said Sánchez, interviewed by the news agency Notimex at a reception organized by Imcine in Toronto.

Seen as one of the four most important film festivals in the world, TIFF opened on September 4 and finishes on the 14th.

The one Mexican film this year is The Years of Fierro, produced and directed by Santiago Esteinou, a documentary about a Mexican convict, César Fierro, who has spent 30 years in a Texas prison awaiting the death sentence.

That sentence has been put off several times to allow for reviews of contradictory details of his trial for murder.

Other films with Mexican production involvement are:

• Sand Dollars: a co-production with the Dominican Republic and Argentina, directed by Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas, and starring Geraldine Chaplin.

• Jauja, directed by Argentinian Lisandro Alonso and co-produced by several countries.

• Night Noon, directed by Shambhavi Kaul of India, a joint Mexico-United States project.

Three other films feature the participation of individual Mexicans. Salma Hayek co-produced and acted in the animated film Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, while Gael García Bernal stars in Rosewater, made by Jon Stewart of The Daily Show.

Sánchez explained that more Mexican films would have been in the festival were it not for a matter of timing and opportunity. It isn’t because Mexican film production is down, she said, but that some other films had been shown at earlier festivals.

TIFF will see 392 films from 79 countries during the 11-day run of the festival.

Source: El Universal (sp)