This week sees the start of the 17th Guanajuato International Film Festival, or GIFF, which takes place in San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato Capital in Mexico from July 25 to August 3.

One of the programme highlights is the University Rally – a challenge where nine teams of college students shoot and deliver a five-minute short film in 48 hours.

During the four months of pre-production, the teams received real-world training from prestigious companies, as well as important filmmakers, aimed at giving them the tools necessary to create a quality short film. Topics ranged from film production, workflows, colour grading, lighting and photography, camera operation and audio production to design.

Alongside our partner in Mexico, AMTEC, FilmLight provided a workflow and colour grading workshop—and also supplied the students with licences for Baselight for Final Cut Pro for the duration of the project.

All locations, sets, props and wardrobe must be sourced within Guanajuato, so the teams must literally knock on the doors of the Guanajuato community and ask for these items to be lent for the production. The equipment for the shoot (cameras, tripods, batteries and memory cards) is provided by AMTEC.

The shorts include the participation of recognised professional actors and the films will be screened before thousands of spectators where a jury of film industry professionals will select the winners.

AMTEC will also have a booth at the Lobby of Guanajuato’s Auditorium from July 29 to August 2.