Guatemala City holds its first Canadian Film Festival

The first Canadian Film Festival held in Guatemala City took place this past December at Cine Pradera, one of Guatemala’s major movie theatres. The Festival featured three prominent films from the Canadian film industry: A Silent Love (directed by Federico Hidalgo), L’Audition (directed by Luc Picard) and Un crabe dans la tête (directed by André Turpin).

Canadian Ambassador Kenneth Cook hosted a vin d’honneur for the opening of the Festival, where A Silent Love was screened as the inaugural film. A Canadian-Mexican production, A Silent Love features a strong Latin American component and many of the film’s Mexican actors (Carmen Salinas, Susana Salazar, Jorge Zárate) are well recognized by the Guatemalan public. The 175 guests who attended the inaugural screening were captivated by this romantic comedy and laughed at the ingenuity of the Spanish-speaking actresses.

This was the first time that a sample of Canada’s film industry was formally presented in Guatemala, and the attendance and interest generated throughout the festival was quite high. Guatemalans enjoyed experiencing a piece of Canadian cinematic culture, and look forward to future showings of Canadian films.

The film festival in Guatemala City, which generated a great deal of attention for Canadian cinema, provided Guatemalans an opportunity to recognize Canada’s film industry as innovative, different and attractive.