Colombia. To contribute to the growth and strengthening of the city's audiovisual and film sector, the District Administration will give continuity to Miradas Medellín, which will be held from November 20 to 24 and which, from this edition, proposes a renewal towards a great city event with three components: Festival, Meeting and Market.
This transformation, in which Miradas Medellín is no longer conceived as a film festival, is due to the agreements reached in a public and open exercise with the audiovisual sector, which were embodied in Agreement # 72 of 2023, which defines the event, its scope and the link with the District Cinematheque and the Film Commission.
"We are applying two principles, the first is to recognize the importance of a space like this, to recognize that the city deserves to have a festival, a meeting, a market, that addresses the issues of the film and audiovisual industry, that this recognition implied us to rescue that process and that, as a district administration, regardless of anything, we have the task and responsibility that people trust the processes we lead and for that reason responsibility. We have to find the formulas in which the things that are valuable to the city can be maintained. That is also why the recognition of the value of the artists and talent that were linked to the process," said the Secretary of Citizen Culture, Santiago Silva.
This year, Miradas Medellín will have film and audiovisual arts exhibition activities, offering spaces for the strengthening of talent and local projects, as well as opportunities for business development and business creation.
Medellín has a creative and cultural industry, with a base of 4,740 companies that represent 4.1% of the city's total, according to data from the Medellín Chamber of Commerce for Antioquia.
"In Medellín we believe in the talent of our people and we work to position the city as a competitive and global destination. We are committed to strengthening the cultural, creative and audiovisual sectors; therefore, at the Miradas Festival, through the Film Commission, we want to promote the local industry through business roundtables and activities such as talks and workshops for updating, training and analysis of the sector," said the Secretary of Economic Development, María Fernanda Galeano.
The Encounter component will integrate 28 local projects with 140 beneficiaries, through four laboratories with expert tutors and seven refresher workshops. Among the mentors are Gabriela Sandoval, a Chilean producer with extensive experience and director of SANFIC (Industry of the Santiago de Chile International Film Festival) and the Colombian producer Natalia Echeverri, who has led projects for Netflix such as Distrito Salvaje and Secuestro del Vuelo 601.
The Festival component will have an Ibero-American emphasis and will exhibit more than 50 works including short and feature films, expanded cinema and other formats. It will have three central sections: Ibero-American Cinema, National Cinema and Cinema Made in Medellín and the Metropolitan Area; in addition to two alternate sections: Expanded Cinema and Archive and Memory Cinema.
"Our goal, for the 2024 edition, is to restore the confidence of the sector and allies, to carry out an event coherent with the needs of the audiovisual and film sector, sowing the foundations that guide it to position itself in the calendar of audiovisual events at the national level," said the director of Miradas Medellín, Jaime Guerrero.
From this edition, all the activities of the Festival component will be directly articulated with the District Cinematheque and their screenings will take place in movie theaters, cultural facilities and allied venues, including spaces in the Aburrá Valley. Under this new articulation, it was possible to program and pay for five films affected by the previous edition in different city events.
Finally, in coordination with the Medellín Film Commission, the Market component will be carried out, with activities to strengthen the audiovisual business fabric of the city, divided into two spaces, the Industry Forum, which will present dialogues on the challenges and current affairs of the audiovisual industry and will feature agents from the local, national and international sector; and the Business Roundtable for local projects, which will connect creators with potential investors through national incentives or direct investment.
