Guanajuato International Film Festival (Expresión en Corto), the largest Short Film and Documentary Film Festival of Latin America, which takes place each year in the picturesque, beautiful, historic, world heritage sites of San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato Capital, Mexico, during the final ten days of July.

 Being recognized as one of the most important festivals in Latin America, the Guanajuato International Film Festival greatly admires your efforts to give International and of course Latin American filmmakers and producers the opportunity to show, commercialize and distribute their projects internationally. We applaud this activity, and for more than a decade now, have succeeded in offering a platform for upcoming talents in filmmaking and bringing them together with world-renowned experts of the moving image. We are a festival that prides itself in celebrating, supporting and awarding the next generation of filmmakers. Acting as a platform for launching new careers, our national and international competition pits newcomers alongside the industry's most seasoned veterans, in an atmosphere full of camaraderie and respect, where new and aspiring filmmakers mix with industry professionals in a very open, accessible and competitive environment. We therefore encourage you to visit our festival, experience our diverse programming and meet our original creative talents firsthand.

 From July 22nd to July 31st GIFF will once again establish itself as the largest and most important event of its kind in Latin America, receiving over 2,400 films from more than 90 countries in competition, while hosting over 86,000 total audience members who, over 10 days, will enjoy more than 400 films from 9am until 4am in 20 venues. We present both Mexican and International short films in the following areas of competition: fiction, experimental, animation, free style and documentary.

 Eight years ago we established the first International Pitching Market in Mexico with a vision for giving young Mexican filmmakers and producers an opportunity to pitch their feature film projects. Each year, the IPM summons international producers, distributors and diverse film financing institutions from around the world together with Mexico's top feature film projects in development.

 As part of our ongoing alliance with the Cannes Film Festival, the latest sessions of Cinéfondation Residence Laureates will present their work and interact with Mexican filmmakers and our international guests during the fourth edition of the MexiCannes Summer Residence Program.

 Each year the Mexican Institute of Cinematography (IMCINE) and the Guanajuato International Film Festival coordinate a Bilateral Forum between Mexico and our country guest of honor. One of the Bilateral Forum's main objectives is to create a dialogue about the current state of the film industries in both countries as well as open the possibility for developing new projects between the two nations. This dialogue unites noted producers, directors, distributors and exhibitors from both countries to discuss and investigate proven Case Studies of historic success (or failure) in film production, distribution, exhibition and marketing. In July of 2011 we will host the Republic of Korea as our most honored guests.

 Last year we launched INCUBATOR, a project focused on nurturing and developing the next generation of Mexican producers and international filmmakers. INCUBATOR extends an invitation to the visiting Cinéfondation Residence Laureates from the Festival de Cannes, who participate in our annual MexiCannes Summer Residences Program, as well as all Mexican and international filmmakers selected for competition. These young filmmakers receive advice from industry professionals on the subjects of appraising the value of scripts, financing, pitching, packaging and promoting their projects at film festivals, markets and professional business meetings. During the 10 days of the festival over 100 young filmmakers receive one-on-one sessions.

 All this in addition to hosting Mexico's largest international competition as well as an abundance of workshops, conferences and tributes to both national and international filmmakers and artists, who in the past have included Peter Greenaway, Tim Burton, Deepa Mehta, Kenneth Anger, Oliver Stone, Shyam Benegal, Gaspar Noé, Spike Lee, Spike Jonze, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Lucrecia Martel and Eliseo Subiela.