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Netflix is toasting Mexico’s National Day of Cinema on Aug. 15 with a slew of projects, many of them tapping the country’s wealth of literary classics and original storytellers. Working with some of the most prominent local filmmakers, the streaming giant is also reaffirming its $300 million commitment to Mexican cinema and series and its #QueMéxicoSeVea (“Let Mexico Be Seen”) initiative.

A teaser of its upcoming film “No voy a pedirle a nadie que me crea” (“I Don’t Expect Anyone to Believe Me”) by Fernando Frías De La Parra (“I’m No Longer Here”) debuts exclusively on Variety.

An adaptation of what award-winning author Juan Pablo Villalobos describes as an ‘autobiographical fiction,’ Frias’ latest film follows the writer as he prepares to go to Barcelona with his girlfriend to study for a doctorate in literature. But he gets caught up in a criminal network that spurs him to write the...

Eight of the 10 directors in the Morelia Festival’s main Mexican competition are women, led by two of the biggest Mexican fest hits of the year,“Robe of Gems,” Natalia López Gallardo’s Berlin Special Jury laureate, and “Huesera,” from Michelle Garza Cervera, a double Tribeca winner.

Features with Indigenous or Black Mexican protagonists have shot up in Mexico, from 14 in 2019 to 31 in 2019, according to Imcine’s Mexican Cinema Yearbook.

In 2017, Mexico’s biggest homegrown hit was Nicolas López’s “Do It Like an Hombre,” a merciless taunt of a Mexican macho’s helpless homophobia, which grossed 11.0 million in the country.

For centuries an entrenched bastion of machismo, in film terms, the dial is finally moving on diversity.

“When I started out, like 20 years ago, I could count with my fingers the female directors I knew in Mexico; and today, there are almost 100,” says Natalia Beristáin, director of 2017’s Morelia...

Showrun by Lucía Puenzo and produced by Fremantle and Fabula, “Señorita México” (“Miss Mexico”) has added two writers, María Renée Prudencio and Tatiana Merenuk, as it advances towards production, which is scheduled for the first half of 2021.

The new series will be produced for Starzplay and Pantaya in Latin America and Spain, in a deal brokered by Fremantle’s international distribution arm, Fremantle and Fabula confirmed Tuesday, as they also unveiled more details of one of Latin America’s banner productions for 2021, which will be the first at Fabula’s new Mexican production beach-head.

Star of Fernando Eimbke’s “Club Sandwich,” actress-writer Mexico-based Prudencio scooped a Mexican Academy Ariel for co-adapting ensemble comedy “Last Call,” which also won its female cast a collective prize at the Guadalajara Festival. Her second major movie screenplay, for Natalia Beristain’s “The Eternal Feminine,” exhibited a distinctive female sensibility in its portrait of Mexican writer Rosario Castellanos.

Los Cabos — “The Twentieth Century,” Matthew Rankin’s crazed retelling of Canadian history, won the main Los Cabos Competition this Saturday, beating out a prestige lineup of some of the most notable festival standouts of the year.

The win at Los Cabos, whose competition is focused on movies from the U.S., Mexico and Canada, adds to “The Twentieth Century’s” Toronto Best Canadian First Feature prize for a feature made with high style, shot like 1940s melodrama, with a box-like Academy ratio.

Mexico Primero, a showcase of first or second-time Mexican features, was won by “The Dove and the Wolf,” the feature debut of Carlos Lenin, which world premiered at this year’s Locarno Film Festival in Filmmakers of the Present. A young couple love story, “The Dove and the Wolf” is distinguished by its context, a grimy small town assailed by cartel violence, and its unyielding use of...

Los Cabos, Mexico — A mix of traditional pre-colonial and modern, urban-infused storytelling, Julio Hernández Cordón’s “Neza” pitches at this week’s Los Cabos Festival Works in Development, where the filmmaker’s most recent film “Buy Me a Gun” – Director’s Fortnight and San Sebastian Horizontes Latinos competitor – is in competition.

Born in North Carolina but educated at Mexico’s Ccc, Hernández has positioned himself as one of Mexico and Mesoamerica’s most solid filmmakers. In 2007 his feature “Gasolina” won the Filmsin Progress award at San Sebastian and a year later topped the festival’s Horizontes Latinos competition. Since that time, he has pumped out critical and festival acclaimed films regularly, including “Atrás hay relámpagos” – a participant at Rotterdam – and the aforementioned “Buy Me a Gun.”

“Neza” is a modern tale with pre-Spanish roots. It’s the story of a pair of betrayals which become too much for the titular character to bear.

When Gael Garcia Bernal was on the Sundance U.S. dramatic competition jury in 2017, the actor was disappointed to find that not a single film in the section was directed by an American-born filmmaker of Latino descent. Almost two years later, he was struggling to name one person who could have been there. “I would love to mention a good Latino director from the U.S.,” he said over coffee at the Bowery Hotel this week. “I would love to give you one name — like, yeah, man, this guy is doing great stuff. But no. I can’t.”

The actor was quick to draw a distinction between American Latinos and filmmakers born in Latin-American countries who found success in the United States — especially the so-called Three Amigos, Alfonso Cuaron, Alejandro G. Iñarritu, and Guillermo del Toro. Bernal’s breakout performance was in Iñarritu’s “Amores Perros,” and he worked with...

Madrid — Having swooped before Berlin on Gael García Bernal starrer “Museo,” Paris-based Paris-based Luxbox has acquired most world sales rights to Alejandra Márquez Abella’s “The Good Girls,” another high-profile Mexican movie.

Mexican exhibition giant Cinepolis’ is handling distribution rights in North and Latin America.

“The Good Girls” is one of the 12 films – and only two Latin American movies – competing at this year’s Toronto Platform Competition, launched in 2015 to mark out new with bold directorial vision not alien to audience appeal. Past Platform titles include Armando Iannucci’s “The Death of Stalin” (2017) Warwick Thornton’s “Sweet Country” (2017), Pablo Larraín’s “Jackie” (2016) and Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight” (2016).

Produced by Gabriela Maire and Rodrigo S. González, a co-founder of Mexico’s Woo Films, “The Good Girls” marks Márquez Abella’s return to Toronto after her feature debut, “Semana Santa,” played at Tiff in 2015, marking her out as a name to watch among...

Juan Andrés Arango’s migrant drama claimed the México Primero prize and Andrea Arnold’s road movie prevailed in the Competencia de Los Cabos category as the fifth annual Los Cabos International Film Festival closed on Saturday.

Both films received Mxn $200k (roughly Usd $9.6k), while Tamara And The Ladybug by Lucía Carrera took the Fipresci México Primero Award as well as the Usd $12k Art Kingdom Trailer Award presented by Art Kingdom Showbiz Agency.

Beauties Of The Night by Maria José Cuevas took the Mxn $200k Cinemex Audience prize, and Kris Avedisian’s Donald Cried claimed the Usd $15k Labodigital Incentive For Distribution award.

Three filmmakers each earned a Mxn $150k (Usd $7.2k) scholarship under the auspices of the Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund: Cómprame Un Revólver by Julio Hernández Cordón; Alicia by Michael Rowe; and Monsters And Men by Reinaldo M. Green.

The Usd $160k Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund - Labodigital Awards went to: The Rosenbergs...

Kiki Alvarez’s drama takes its place alongside five others in the Buenos Aires market’s post-production slate.

Soul Sisters (Las Chambelonas) marks Alvazrez’s follow-up to Venice, his drama that debuted in Toronto back in September 2014.

Primer Corte includes drama Los Últimos (Argentina) – the feature directorial debut of Nicolás Puenzo – and Natalia Beristain’s drama The Goodbyes (Los Adioses, Mexico).

Rounding out Primer Corte are drama Body Electric (Corpo Elétrico, Brazil) by Marcelo Caetano, comedy musical Las Malcogidas (Bolivia) by Denisse Arancibia, and comedy The Originals (Los Oriyinales, Colombia) by Harold Trompetero.

Cannes’ Cinefondation’s Georges Goldenstern selected the line-up. Ventana Sur runs from November 29-December 3.

Projects selected for the Trends platform showcasing new technologies are: Bad Winters Day (Maximiliano Trionfante, Argentina); Territoria (Gonzalo Sierra, Argentina); Sense 360 (Peterson Da Silva, Brazil); Vr Chinchorro (Diego Briet and Maria Court, Chile); Ancestros (Rodrigo Castellanos, Colombia); Cuerpos De Agua (Alvaro Rodriguez and Carlos Serrano, Colombia); and Fran...