The Mexican Cinematography Institute (IMCINE) will have one year to better the numbers of the digital platform FilminLatino while lowering maintenance costs.
Last Monday , María Novaro, head of IMCINE , had said that the project dedicated to stream both national and international movies at a low cost would disappear.
This sparked controversy in the film community. Filmmakers such as Guillermo del Toro offered their help so that the platform would not shut down, while Mexican actor Diego Luna deemed that the platform was indispensable for audiences looking for a deeper approach to cinema.
Yesterday, through a press release, the Ministry of Culture and IMCINE stated that the platform would continue for another year with aims to facilitate access to Mexican cinema, though the platform would be subject to evaluation, according to Novaro.
Created in 2015 , FilminLatino has represented an investment of MXN$22 million , according to Novaro. The platform has around 2,000 movie titles , half of which are local. Out of all its 86 thousand subscribers , only around 2,500 have paid a subscription .
“It was my obligation to evaluate the platform. The numbers were bad, but I hope that this helps people decide to subscribe and help us keep this project alive. If we were to make a projection of how many subscribers we need, it would be unrealistic. We are looking for other ways to finance the platform,” Novaro indicated.
FilminLatino was created thanks to an alliance between the institute and Filmin España , which has existed for 10 years.
“I was doing the right thing by reevaluating what we have and how we can make it work properly. We have one-year contracts with Filmin España. The contracts are renewed on December 31, so we have one year to make this work.”
The head of IMCINE has not ruled out the possibility of moving FilminLatino to a Mexican platform.
dm