Catálogo General GIFF 2019 El Salón de la Crítica | Page 4

El Salón de la Crítica | The Critics’ Room
F
Film criticism began with the birth of the medium. Along with this new
grammar that the language of the moving image demanded,
the parameters that defined one from another began to be defined.
Time set up different languages depending on what each filmmaker
and each part of the world were doing with the moving image,
recognizing the diversity in voices, criticism took the task of analyzing
and assimilating each aspect of this new art
Aware of how crucial film criticism is, Guana-
juato International Film Festival (GIFF) seeks in
this 22nd edition, for the second year in a row, to
créate a dialogue that encourages the develop-
ment and the future of film criticism in Mexico.
This area takes on three converging axes that seek
to bring together those who take on this valuable
task of critiquing cinema: The Critic’s Room, The
Critic’s Workshop and The Critic’s (Week)End.
The Critic’s Room is a virtual interactive space
that seeks to re-live the social gathering of old
cineclubs. Reviews by film critics and aspiring
critics of all ages are analyzed and commented
upon, as well as those of cinephiles seeking to
approach criticism and thus promoting cine-
philia. Such as transpired in the seven editions
that have been carried out monthly through live
transmissions on GIFF’s Facebook page starting
in December 2018. This year at GIFF, professional
critics will analyze two different films that will
screen during the festival and share their opinions
on them with those who come to watch said films.
The objective is to bring film journalism closer
to everyone and to create a new community.
The Critic’s Workshop is a formative space
that has been created to make professionals out
of those aspiring film critics through profession-
al critics who will share their knowledge, thus
continuing the festival’s task of being a catalyst
in the formation of film professionals. GIFF 2019
will offer two workshops to continue the work
done in the previous edition of the festival.
The Critic’s Week(End) is an encounter that
brings together the experiences of professional
critics in different discussion groups to discuss
the current landscape of film criticism and talk
about positive as well as negative factors that
affect it. By that same token, solutions will be
discussed for the problems that are presented.
This year, this encounter will take place on Sat-
urday July 27th in Guanajuato City.
This is how GIFF seeks to guarantee that film
criticism remains far from extinction, maintain-
ing its place in the public and seeking to assimilate
the always changing film industry launching from
thought, analysis, vision and the independent
voice that characterizes the vocation of the film
critic.
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