The Guadalajara International Film Festival (FICG) celebrates the appointment of Guillermo Gómez Mata as President of its Board of Trustees. The designation took place this August 1st at the Ordinary General Assembly of the FICG Board of Trustees in a unanimous vote.
“It is recognition of an expansive career, to say the least, at the University of Guadalajara itself, but it is also an action that the Board of Trustees takes with great awareness. The heart of the Festival is located in the very heart of the University of Guadalajara, an autonomous higher public institution, which is very important to recognize, and from those same ranks comes the person who will be in charge of being the great cog that unites all those loose elements that festivals can be,” said Hugo Villa Smythe, General Director of Cinematographic Activities of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and member of the Board of Trustees of the FICG, a council chaired by institutions and personalities linked to the world of national cinematography. It is in the assemblies of this board where fundamental issues for the organization and celebration of our Festival are approved.
Among the institutions that make up the FICG Board of Trustees are the University of Guadalajara, the Mexican Institute of Cinematography, the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences, the UNAM Film Library, the National School of Cinematographic Arts, the Cinematographic Training Center, the National Cineteca, Churubusco Studios, the Mexican Association of Independent Producers, Sony Pictures Distribution, the National Bank of Public Works and Services with the Trust for the National Cineteca, the Guadalajara Convention and Visitors Bureau and the governments of the state of Jalisco and the municipalities of Zapopan and Guadalajara. Personally, the members are Guillermo del Toro, Bertha Navarro Solares, Arcelia Ramírez, Iván Trujillo Bolio, Marina Stavenhagen Salas, Damián Alcázar, Carlos Rogelio Beltrán Briseño, Rodolfo Guzmán Salas, Pablo Arredondo and Eduardo de la Vega Alfaro.
“I feel very happy, committed, I feel at home. I had to work for many years very closely with the directors of the Festival, its activities, even in the management of resources at the federal and state level. It's a big challenge. From the Board of Trustees we are going to put all our strength, our power, to continue supporting Mexican cinema,” shared Guillermo Gómez Mata about his appointment. Born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, in 1973, he has a degree in International Trade from the University of Guadalajara and a master's degree in Political Science for the Development of Latin America from the London School of Economics and Political Science with a distinction degree.
His connection with the Guadalajara International Film Festival dates back to 2004, as a member of its Board of Trustees as a representative of Zapopan until 2006 and again from 2010 to 2012. He joined in a personal capacity in March 2015 and was named Treasurer of the Board of Trustees until March of 2019.
Gómez Mata has also been General Director of the Institute of Culture of the Zapopan City Council on two occasions, the first from 2004 to 2006, and the second from 2010 to 2012. He is also, from 2006 to date, Treasurer of the Board of Educational Development of the State of Jalisco AC
In the university field, he has served since April 2019 as Secretary General of the University of Guadalajara, an institution in which he has also held various positions, including: Rector of the Los Altos University Center of the University of Guadalajara, Executive Director of the UdeG Foundation, Vice President of the UdeG Foundation in the United States, responsible for the UdeG Program in Los Angeles, California, United States; Director of the Center for Strategic Studies for Development, member of the Board of Directors of the Guadalajara International Book Fair and founding member of the Leones Negros Board of Trustees, among other assignments.
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