Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico - Steeped in a tradition of great filmmaking, Puerto Vallarta is hosting its 17th Annual International Film Festival (FICPV) through March 24, 2017. For the past week, this Pacific Mexican coastal city has welcomed movie stars, producers and film makers from around the world who are devoted to creating bridges - not walls! - through film.

The FICPV is composed this year of eleven sections, four of them new ones devoted to the Cork Film Festival; Elderly People Films; musical cinema; and transborder films. The latter is particularly important because of the relevance that international migration currently has, along with the multicultural citizenship, in a contemporary world.

"Currently the world is facing the challenge of reaffirming, in an intelligent manner, the respect for cultural diversity and the tolerance against the new forms of supremacist nationalism, racism and xenophobia" said University of Guadalajara Centro Universitario de la Costa (CuCosta) rector, Dr. Marco Antonio Cortés Guardado, during the March 13 opening gala. "Cinema is, in this sense, a privileged medium for providing a correct awareness of the topic based on the dissemination of democratic values."

Though the 17th Puerto Vallarta International Film Festival will be ending on Friday, you still have a few chances to view some great movies!

On Thursday, March 23rd at 7:00 pm you can see the film In America, by the great Irish director Jim Sheridan. This movie, part of the new Transborder Films Section, is being showed in the Salón Paraiso at Paradise Village in Nuevo Vallarta. This beautiful auditorium is located next door to the St. San Javier Hospital, across the street from the Hard Rock Hotel Vallarta.

From the Agave Award Section there will be a screening of Jonathan by director Piotr J. Lewandowsi, at 9:00 pm on Thursday, March 23rd at The Barracuda on El Solar Beach.

And the FICPV #17 closing ceremony will take place at 8:00 pm on Friday, March 24th, at Oscar's Restaurant. The movie Heartstone, which was filmed in Iceland and Denmark in 2016 by Director Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundisson, will be shown.

All events are free and open to the public. Don't miss it! For more information, please visit the CuCosta website.