From Concept to Screen: A Dialogue Between Producer Mariela Besuievsky and Guadalajara Film Festival Director Estrella Araiza

Date and time: Friday, Nov. 6th. 5:30 p.m.

Venue: Espacio Fundación Telefónica

Tickets: Free admission with prior registration at:

www.espacio.fundaciontelefonica.com

In sign language and streaming.

Type of activity: Talk

Participants:

• Mariela Besuievsky (Uruguay, Spain): executive producer

• Estrella Araiza (Mexico): Guadalajara Film Festival Director

Moderator: Diego Mas Trelles, codirector of the festival.

Mariela Besuievsky is a Uruguayan film and television producer. She is a partner at the production company Tornasol. Her credits include more than 150 films as a producer and executive producer, including The Secret in Their Eyes by Juan José Campanella, winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film; The Last Circus(Silver Lion at the 2010 Venice Film Festival) and The Oxford Murders by Álex de la Iglesia; Tetro by Francis Ford Coppola; and The Man Who Killed Don Quixote by Terry Gilliam. In television, she was part of the production team of Four Seasons in Havana, which received the 2017 Platino Award for Best Ibero-American Miniseries. Between 2019 and 2021, she worked as executive producer on the documentary miniseries Who Killed María Marta? and The Photographer and the Postman: The Crime of Cabezas, both released on Netflix. In 2021, the series Ana Tramel. El juegopremiered on RTVE. In 2024, the series Detective Touré aired on RTVE. She has recently been elected the new president of the Spanish Association of Film Producers (AECINE), which brings together nearly 60 independent production companies from across Spain.

Estrella Araiza is currently the director of the Guadalajara International Film Festival and the FICG Cineteca. During her tenure, her main management objective has been the promotion of Mexican, Latin American and Ibero-American cinema. She has also directed the GuadaLAjara Film Festival (GLAFF) in Los Angeles, California, and has gained experience as Director of Industry and the Film Market at FICG, as a sales agent, academic and film distributor in Mexico.

She began her career in international film distribution in 2005 and, in 2012, launched her company Vendo Cine. She has served on juries at international festivals and has also collaborated and participated in major film markets around the world.

Among her contributions to the Mexican film industry is the implementation of programmes such as Cine incluyente, aimed at enabling people with disabilities to enjoy films on the big screen. She was also the executive producer of the exhibition En casa con mis monstruos and of the stop-motion version of Pinocchio, both projects by Guillermo del Toro.