The Guadalajara International Film Festival (FICG) and the University of Guadalajara at Los Angeles (UDGLA) have offered members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association exclusive screenings of the Columbian feature film Retrato en un mar de mentiras (Portraits in a Sea of Lies), directed by Carlos Gaviria, and the Mexican film Las buenas hierbas (The Good Herbs), by Maria Novaro.

This event serves as an example of FICG’s commitment to promoting award-winning films, according to festival director Ivan Trujillo, who explained that both films won a number of awards at FICG 2010, including best Latin American Film (Retrato en un mar de mentiras) and the Premio del Público Cinecolor award for best Mexican Feature Film (Las buenas hierbas).

“We are pushing for these films to be considered for the Golden Globes in 2011, awards that will be decided by 120 voting journalists. Las buenas hierbas, will also participate in the Rome Film Festival.”

He went on to say that the final determination as to whether both productions will participate in the Golden Globes 2011 will be announced towards the end of this year.

Retratos en un mar de mentiras presents the story of Jairo, an itinerant photographer, and Marina, his cousin, as they journey from Bogota to the coast to reclaim land of their deceased grandfather. The film unravels a past full of pain and death that explains Marina’s amnesia and muteness.

The production delves into the physical and emotional aspects of Marina's journey back to her hometown, a place of waves and sea breezes which she was forced to leave due to violence.

In Las buenas hierbas, Dalia, who is separated from her husband, lives with her young son Cosmo and works at an alternative radio station while receiving financial assistance from her father. Her life changes when she has to deal with the diagnosis of her mother, an ethnobotanist at the UNAM Botanical Garden, with early onset Alzheimer’s disease.