As part of the 16th edition of the Monterrey International Film Festival, María Novaro, director of IMCINE; Hugo Villa Smythe, general director of film activities at UNAM; and Tábata Vilar, director of CANACINE, had a conversation with Juan Manuel González, director of the ficmonterrey, about the current outlook that the film industry lives due to the health crisis generated by the Covid-19, that has slowed down the areas of production and exhibition.

As part of FILMO, a section of the Festival, the experts shared from their trenches the challenges of the industry, but also the areas of opportunities that it means for new digital areas.

For Hugo Villa, one of the challenges he sees today is the «return of audiences» while the director of IMCINE warns of a decrease in the number of productions.

For her part, Tábata Vilar described as an unprecedented moment the circumstances that currently live in Mexico and the world, and explained that CANACINE has to give trust to people to return to the cinema since it is an industry with important participation in the economy of the country and thousands of families, so much that it participates in production as an exhibition.

She added that all the protocols required for the operation of cinemas means a «financial challenge», this generates trust to do it in a safer way.

«Although the fact of reducing capacity to cinemas, the fact that only 30 percent of the cinema can be occupied, generates a financial challenge, but also generates security for people», said Vilar. In the case of productions, they face a virus that forces them to reduce equipment, application of tests before the start of filming, hygiene measures, development of stories, among several more.