Mexico’s cinema industry hopes for a new golden age

Mexican actor Demian Bichir may be well known in his own country, but is relatively unknown across the border in Hollywood. Not for much longer.
The Mexican actor goes head-to-head with some of Tinseltown’s biggest stars – including George Clooney and Brad Pitt – at the Oscars this year.
He’s the first Mexican to be nominated for an Academy Award for best actor (for A Better Life) since

IndieWire’s The Playlist selects “No” (Pablo Larrain) and “Post Tenebras Lux” (Carlos Reygadas) as one of the Most Anticipated Foreign-Language Films Of 2012

Forget the multiplex, what’s going to be heating up the arthouse this year? 2011 saw some fantastic foreign flicks not only crowding top ten lists (“Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall Past Lives,” “A Separation,” “Le Havre,” etc) but even some like the ode-to-silent-cinema “The Artist” entering serious Oscar chit chat. Nearly every weekend, smaller arthouses showcased exciting alternatives to the general empty-headed nonsense that fills the bigger arenas when it’s not October, November, and December. If you had the eyesight for subtitles and were willing to take a chance, there was a remedy for every

Mexico Does Record Year in Cinema Admissions

Market share for local productions remains low
Mexico, one of the world’s leading moviegoing markets, had another record year at the box office, with Hollywood fare gobbling up the lion’s share of the profits.
Film chamber Canacine said in a year-end report that Mexico, which ranks fifth worldwide in admissions, will surpass the 200-million milestone in annual attendance this year and that theater

Mexico, Special Guest at Geneva Latin American Film Festival

With an eye toward the centennial of its independence, Mexico will be the special guest at the 13th edition of the “Filmar en America Latina” film festival in Geneva, where for more than three weeks the public will be able to view more than 100 films produced in Latin America in 2010 and 2011.
From Oct. 31 to Nov. 22, the public will be able to enjoy a selection of films and documentaries from across Latin America, but particularly from Mexico, which – as this year’s honored guest – is contributing 24 works.
Mexican actor Gabino Rodriguez, who had roles in eight Mexican films during 2010-2011, will be the special invited guest at the festival this year, and all his latest works will be screened including “Asalto al cine” by Iria Gomez, “Verano de Goliat” de Nicolas Pereda and “Abel” by Diego Luna.

“Las Acacias” by Argentine Pablo Giorgelli Wins 2011 Horizons Prize

“Las Acacias” by Argentine director Pablo Giorgelli was awarded on Saturday evening the Horizons Prize, which honors the best Latin American film in the Latin Horizons category at Spain’s San Sebastian Film Festival.

In addition, “Miss Bala” (Miss Bullet) by Mexican director Gerardo Naranjo, and the Brazilian visual story “Historias que So Existem Quamdo Lembradas” (Stories that Only Exist When Remembered) obtained separate honorary mentions, according to the president of the Latin Horizons jury, actor Juan Diego Botto.

Film of the week: “Adios Mundo Cruel” (Goodbye, Cruel World) – Trailer -

Sometimes going into a movie not knowing what to expect can be the best way to do it. Even going in with a basic idea of the plot but no clue as to what the film will be like tonally can intensify your overall opinion about the film. That was certainly the case for the Mexican film GOODBYE CRUEL WORLD, a film about a man whose terrible outcomes turn into our comedic pleasures.
Angel (Carlos Alberto Orozco) can’t catch a break. It all starts when he loses his job, in this economic

Morelia Film Festival competition lineup

The ninth Morelia Film Festival unveiled its key Mexican competition lineup Monday.
Counting works from five femme filmmakers among the eight pics in the running, the fest is quickly gaining industry pull as a hothouse revue for up-and-coming local directors presenting their first or second works.
Lucia Carreras, co-scribe for 2010 Cannes Camera d’Or winner “Leap Year,” will see the world preem of her first outing as helmer, “See You, Dad.”

AFI Latin American Film Festival Selects “The Mexican Suitcase” For Opener

An image from Trisha Ziff's "The Mexican Suitcase."

AFI has selected “The Mexican Suitcase” (La Maleta Mexicana) as its opening night feature for the 2011 AFI Latin American Film Festival in Silver Spring, MD.
“The Mexican Suitcase” is the latest from documentary filmmaker Trisha Ziff, whose 2008 film, “Chevolution,” explored the iconography behind the well-known photo of guerilla revolutionary Che Guevara.
“Suitcase” follows the discovery and preservation of thousands of photo negatives, thought to be lost, but found in Mexico City in 2007.
Ziff will be in attendance to present the film, which was an official selection of the Los Angeles

Film of the week: The Cinema Hold Up (Asalto Al Cine) Directed by Iria Gómez Concheiro – Trailer

A somber but engaging, powerful examination of four Mexico City teenagers whose self-destructive tendencies speak volumes about the failing social systems surrounding them.
There’s a moment in the film when the main character, Negus (Gabino Rodríguez), is drawing up detailed schematics of the local megaplex cinema with an engineer’s precision. His friend Chale (Juan Pablo de Santiago) has tried getting into the prestigious Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). Their friend Sapo (Ángel Sosa) is a gifted hip-hop musician. At night, they are graffiti artists, their tour de force a richly detailed mural that fuses traditional Mexican and urban artistic styles.
Yet the three friends, along with La Chata (Paulina Avalos), are bored, apathetic teenagers who spend most of

Mexican Cinema Tries to Make People Stupid, Director Says

Mexican cinema died in the 1960s and was later reborn as a commercial formula based on TV shows, which set out to “dehumanize people and make them stupid,” Mexican director Iria Gomez Concheiro said.
“Mexican cinema died in the ‘60s, leaving behind one style in search of another much more commercial,” Gomez Cocheiro told a press conference over the weekend during the 21st edition of the Cine Ceara Ibero-American Film Festival, now being held at the Brazilian city of Fortaleza.
A new generation of young filmmakers is coming on the scene with the virtue of “doing things very differently,” the director said, but she criticized the lack of discussion about movies, the lack of “serious reviews,” and the lack of “trained critics.”