Cinema public policy in Mexico: between gatopardismo and the elephant in the room
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Cinema public policies have historically been a response, in different countries, to the advance of the United States film industry in domestic markets. In the Mexican case, the entry into force of the North American Free Trade Agreement posed a challenge to the national film industry: competing with Hollywood at its weakest moment. Since then, Mexico has shaped a cinema public policy characterised by support for production. However, over time it became clear that such a policy required changes to cover the areas of distribution and exhibition. The conjuncture of 2020, in which the extinction of the trusts dedicated to providing support for film production was proposed, highlighted two phenomena: first, the gatopardismo (the notion of changing everything so that nothing really changes) of cinema public policy, in which everything changed but nothing truly changed; and second, the impossibility of putting forward public policy instruments aimed at modifying the dynamics of the exhibition sector, which appears as the “elephant in the room” in this field: its presence is evident, yet nobody wants to address it. This essay reviews the Mexican film industry in the context of state intervention; explains three dimensions related to the discussion of state intervention in the film industry; and reflects on the reasons why cinema public policy remains unchanged despite demands for reform.
Article Details
Issue
Section
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
How to Cite
References
Aksoy, A., & Robins, K. (1992). Hollywood for the 21st century: Global competition for critical mass in image markets. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 16(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.cje.a035188
Audley, P. (1983). Canada’s cultural industries: Broadcasting, publishing, records, and film. J. Lorimer, in association with the Canadian Institute for Economic Policy.
Barthel-Bouchier, D. (2012). Exportability of films in a globalizing market: The intersection of nation and genre. Cultural Sociology, 6(1), 75–91. https://doi.org/10.1177/1749975511401269
Bomnüter, U. (2018). Public film funding under a federalist paradigm: A synoptic analysis of state aid for film in Germany. En P. Murschetz, R. Teichmann, & M. Karmasin (Eds.), Handbook of state aid for film: Finance, industries and regulation (pp. 287–310). Springer.
Bordat, E. (2010). Cine e identidad: Un análisis de las políticas de fomento al cine en Argentina y en México en el siglo XX. CEISAL.
Calabrese, A., & Briziarelli, M. (2011). Policy imperialism: Bilateral trade agreements as instruments of media governance. En R. Mansell & M. Raboy (Eds.), The handbook of global media and communication policy (pp. 383–394). Wiley-Blackwell.
Carroll Harris, L. (2018). Film distribution as policy: Current standards and alternatives. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 24(2), 236–255. https://doi.org/10.1080/10286632.2016.1156100
Crane, D. (2014). Cultural globalization and the dominance of the American film industry: Cultural policies, national film industries, and transnational film. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 20(4), 365–382. https://doi.org/10.1080/10286632.2013.832233
De La Vega Alfaro, E., & Vidal Bonifaz, R. (2017, diciembre). Travelling histórico de la industria del cine en México. Ibero Revista de la Universidad Iberoamericana, IX(53), 9–15.
De Man, A., Willems, G., & Biltereyst, D. (2024). Discourses of cultural diversity and inclusion in film policy: The case of Flanders (2002–2022). European Journal of Cultural Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/13675494241228937
Deneulin, S., & Townsend, N. (2007). Public goods, global public goods and the common good. International Journal of Social Economics, 34(1/2), 19–36. https://doi.org/10.1108/03068290710723345
Fu, W. W., & Govindaraju, A. (2010). Explaining global box-office tastes in Hollywood films: Homogenization of national audiences’ movie selections. Communication Research, 37(2), 215–238. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650209356396
Guback, T. H. (2014). Hollywood’s international market. En T. Balio (Ed.), American film industry (2nd ed., pp. 463–486). University of Wisconsin Press.
IMCINE. (2024). Anuario estadístico de cine mexicano 2023. Imcine.
Izquierdo Castillo, J. (2010). Las políticas audiovisuales francesas: Un caso de estudio para el fomento de otras cinematografías. En R. Zallo & Á. Badillo (Eds.), Mercado y políticas de cultura y comunicación en la convergencia global (pp. 70–79). Unión Latina de Economía Política de la Información, la Comunicación y la Cultura.
Jin, D. Y. (2011). A critical analysis of US cultural policy in the global film market: Nation-states and FTAs. International Communication Gazette, 73(8), 651–669. https://doi.org/10.1177/1748048511420092
Lay Arellano, I. T. (2011). Sociedad civil y participación legislativa: El proceso de discusión de la Ley Federal de Cinematografía como primer ejercicio. Revista Legislativa de Estudios Sociales y de Opinión Pública, 4(7), 215–230.
Lee, F. L. F. (2006). Cultural discount and cross-culture predictability: Examining the box office performance of American movies in Hong Kong. Journal of Media Economics, 19(4), 259–278. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327736me1904_3
Meloni, G., Paolini, D., & Pulina, M. (2015). The great beauty: Public subsidies in the Italian movie industry. Italian Economic Journal, 1(3), 445–455. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40797-015-0021-8
Meloni, G., Paolini, D., & Pulina, M. (2018). State subsidies to film and their effects at the box office: Theorizing and measuring why some genres do better than others. En P. Murschetz, R. Teichmann, & M. Karmasin (Eds.), Handbook of state aid for film: Finance, industries and regulation (pp. 99–118). Springer.
Messerlin, P., & Parc, J. (2020). The myth of subsidies in the film industry: A comparative analysis of European and US approaches. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 33(4), 474–489. https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610.2020.1811650
Mingant, N., & Tirtaine, C. (2018). Introduction. En N. Mingant & C. Tirtaine (Eds.), Reconceptualising film policies (pp. 1–12). Routledge.
Moody, P. (2017). Embassy cinema: What WikiLeaks reveals about US state support for Hollywood. Media, Culture & Society, 39(7), 1063–1077. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443716686673
Moody, P. (2020). The US embassy-Hollywood complex: The Sony Pictures hack and twenty-first-century media imperialism. En O. Boyd-Barrett & T. Mirrlees (Eds.), Media imperialism: Continuity and change (pp. 147–158). Rowman & Littlefield.
Moran, A. (2005). Terms for a reader: Film, Hollywood, national cinema, cultural identity and film policy. En A. Moran (Ed.), Film policy: International, national and regional perspectives (pp. 1–20). Taylor and Francis.
Oakland, W. H. (1990). Theory of public goods. En A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (Eds.), Handbook of public economics (pp. 485–535). North-Holland [puis] Elsevier.
Orankiewicz, A. (2022). The role of public support for the film industry – An analysis of movie production incentives in Europe. Prace Naukowe Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego We Wrocławiu, 66(2), 90–104. https://doi.org/10.15611/pn.2022.2.07
Pigou, A. C. (2002). The economics of welfare. Transaction Pub.
Prindle, D. F. (1993). Risky business: The political economy of Hollywood. Westview Press.
Samuelson, P. A. (1954). The pure theory of public expenditure. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 36(4), 387. https://doi.org/10.2307/1925895
Scott, A. J. (2005). On Hollywood: The place, the industry. Princeton University Press.
Shangguan, Q. (2023). Contemporary UK film policy in a historical context. University of York.
Stiglitz, J. E. (2000). La economía del sector público (3a ed.). Bosch.
Wasko, J. (2007). How Hollywood works (Repr.). Sage.