The interior of the Cineteca Nacional in Mexico City in May The Washington Post (via Getty Images)
Cineteca Nacional lost spectators after the pandemic. The institution presented its annual report on Thursday and, according to it, almost 799 thousand people have already visited the complex in 2022. That is, it only recovered “nearly 58%” of users who arrived before the “suspension of activities” due to the Covid-19 health crisis. “There is an audience that I believe is lost forever. Instead of thinking about recovery, we have the challenge of generating a new audience, a younger audience,” Nelson Carro, director of broadcasting and programming, said Thursday.
Between January 1 and December 8, the complex hosted nearly 780,000 spectators in its halls. In addition, nearly 15,000 people visited the Open Air Forum, an outdoor space where films are shown; More than 1,000 users consulted the collection of the Documentation Center and 2,800 people visited the Digital Video Library. The complex screened 168 premieres, including 40 Mexican feature films. In 2019, on the other hand, it surpassed the one million viewer mark with more than 150 premieres.
La Cineteca, the most emblematic cinematographic complex in Mexico, located in the south of the capital and with 10 screens, suffered like all cultural institutions in 2020 from the closure of the pandemic. That year, the complex closed completely and reopened months later in August with 30% reduced capacity. The collections totaled 30 million pesos, compared to 98 million in 2019. In 2021, the turnover was less than half of 2019. Cineteca authorities have not yet provided annual accounts for 2022.
Despite the results, Alejandro Pelayo, director of Cineteca, was optimistic. “Pinocchio made sure we achieved all the objectives,” he guaranteed. Guillermo del Toro’s film, which was released in theaters on November 24, quickly became the most watched film of the year: nearly 47,000 spectators attended the Cineteca screening through December 15, according to the institution. The list of most successful international releases is followed by A Pior Pessoa do Mundo by Joachim Trier; Future Crimes, by David Cronenberg; Alley of Lost Souls, also by Del Toro; Come on, come on: Always Forward by Mike Mills and Licorice Pizza by Paul Thomas Anderson.
Bardo, False Chronicle of Some Truths, by Alejandro González Iñárritu, is the seventh most watched film overall and the first most watched Mexican feature film. The Mexican director’s most personal film hits national cinemas on October 27. Next on the list of national premieres are La civil, by Teodora Ana Mihai; The Mystery of Doctor Grinberg, by Ida Cuéllar; Sanctorum, by Joshua Gil; Mixtec Knot by Ángeles Cruz and The Hole in the Fence by Joaquín del Paso.
Cineteca will open 12 screens at two new locations next year. One will be operational in the first quarter of 2023 in the Centro Nacional das Artes and another from the second half of the year on the fourth part of Bosque de Chapultepec. “The title offer [en la actual sede] it far exceeds the actual capabilities of the case. Right now there must be 30 or 35 different movies, which we don’t want. With 20 we would have an extraordinary value, but the offer is great,” explains Carro.
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Source: La Neta Neta
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
