Cinema of Mexico

Cinema of Mexico
No. of screens5,303 (2012)[1]
 • Per capita4.6 per 100,000 (2012)[1]
Main distributorsParamount Int'L 20.3%
Warner Bros Int'L 16.2%
Fox (Disney) Int'L 14.6%[2]
Produced feature films (2011)[3]
Fictional51 (69.9%)
Animated6 (8.2%)
Documentary16 (21.9%)
Number of admissions (2012)[4]
Total228,000,000
 • Per capita2.0
National films10,900,000 (4.79%)
Gross box office (2012)[4]
Total$779 million
National films$36 million (4.62%)

Mexican cinema dates to the late nineteenth century during the rule of President Porfirio Díaz. Seeing a demonstration of short films in 1896, Díaz immediately saw the importance of documenting his presidency in order to present an ideal image of it.[citation needed] With the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution in 1910, Mexican and foreign makers of silent films seized the opportunity to document its leaders and events. From 1915 onward, Mexican cinema focused on narrative film.[5]

During the Golden Age of Mexican cinema from 1936 to 1956, Mexico all but dominated the Latin American film industry.

In 2019, Roma became the first Mexican film and fourth Latin American film to win the Oscar for best foreign language film. Roma also won the BAFTA Award for Best Film at the 72nd British Academy Film Awards.

Emilio "El Indio" Fernández was rumored to be the model for the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. According to the legend, in 1928 MGM's art director Cedric Gibbons, one of the original Motion Picture Academy members, was tasked with creating the Academy Award trophy. In need of a model for his statuette, Gibbons was introduced by his future wife, actress Dolores del Río, to Fernández. Reportedly, Fernández had to be persuaded to pose nude for what is today known as the "Oscar".[6][7]

  1. ^ a b "Infraestructura de exhibición y festivales" (PDF). Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía. Retrieved 13 November 2013.[permanent dead link]
  2. ^ "Table 6: Share of Top 3 distributors (Excel)". UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Archived from the original on 24 December 2018. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  3. ^ "Table 1: Feature Film Production – Genre/Method of Shooting". UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Archived from the original on 24 December 2018. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  4. ^ a b "Exhibición y distribución" (PDF). Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía. Retrieved 13 November 2013.[permanent dead link]
  5. ^ De los Reyes, Aurelio. "Motion Pictures: 1896–1930" in Encyclopedia of Mexico. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997, pp. 957–964
  6. ^ "6 things you may not know about Oscar statuettes". forevergeek.com. March 2010. Archived from the original on 10 May 2017. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
  7. ^ Alvarez, Alex (22 February 2013). "Meet the Mexican Model Behind the Oscar Statue". ABC News. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 27 February 2016.