10 Mexican Filmmakers to Watch

Less than two months after Hurricane Odile caused more than $1 billion in damage to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and its surrounding areas, the Los Cabos International Film Festival stood by its Twitter-friendly “#Unstoppable” reputation and valiantly opened its third annual event last week. Opening the festival was Oscar-nominated Dallas Buyers Club director Jean-Marc Vallée’s Wild, which is already earning great buzz for star Reese Witherspoon (who was in attendance to introduce the movie) as a top Oscar contender.

While the five-day event’s program was packed with plenty of Hollywood star power, its dedication to homegrown talent —both within its competitive section, its Mexico First program, which highlights the work of local first-time and sophomore filmmakers, and beyond —was particularly admirable.

“What is most exciting about Mexico's new breed of filmmakers is that they don't share a specific thematic or look, but a vibrant and powerful voice that is starting to explore more genres and levels of productions,” says festival director Alonso Aguilar-Castillo. “In a single year we can have a film like Guëros, young and pop that won Berlinale, and Navajazo, an amazingly raw experiment about Tijuana that won Locarno.”

But those two films are just scratching the surface of some of the amazing new talent emerging from Mexico. Here are 10 Mexican Filmmakers to Watch, as seen at this year’s Los Cabos International Film Festival.

Considering the string of awards it has won at the Berlin, Tribeca, San Sebastián, Jerusalem, and Guadalajara Film Festivals, it’s hardly surprising that Alonso Ruizpalacios’ Guëros took home the top prize in Cabo.

Channeling inspiration from the great French New Wave directors, "Ruizpalacios is a filmmaker to keep on the radar from now," says Aguilar-Castillo. "This is such an amazing first feature because so many things are in place: a filmmaker aware of his craft and homaging great masters, the music, the cast, the mise-en-scène. Everything in Guëros speaks to a young audience."

Sophomore filmmaker Marcelo Tobar is proof that the Los Cabos International Film Festival is more than just a platform for showcasing the work of local talent —it’s an incubator, too. Tobar’s second feature, Asteroide, about the ties that bind us to family (even in the face of tragedy), has been widely lauded on the festival circuit, from Vancouver to Miami.

But Tobar’s road to success began at last year’s Los Cabos International Film Festival, where it was shown in an early version. "It's a privilege to follow up on Asteroide after we supported it last year when it came as a work in progress and it took the Movie City Award," says Aguilar-Castillo.

Elise DuRant has spent much of her career working as an editor for Woody Allen on films like Anything Else, Melinda and Melinda, Cassandra’s Dream, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and To Rome With Love. But she launched her own directorial career in a big way this year as the writer-director of Edén, about a young woman who returns home to Mexico after more than 25 years and attempts to rediscover her past.

It’s a story to which the San Miguel de Allende-born DuRant, who Kickstarted the project, could certainly relate. She’s also a filmmaker who benefited from the festival’s efforts to help fund promising talents. "I'm glad we received Edén this year after it won Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund last year and it was able to launch its international career at Rotterdam," says Aguilar-Castillo.

Writer-director Isaac Ezban dives deep into the mind of his audience with his feature directorial debut, El incidente, a psychologically trying sci-fi film that tells two parallel (and similarly claustrophobic) stories of people being trapped in infinite spaces and mindsets. It’s the kind of film that’s easier seen than described, and —with screenings at Fantastic Fest plus the Busan, Vancouver, Buenos Aires Rojo, Morbido, and Denver Film Festivals —has set Ezban up for a busy future.

He recently completed work on a segment for the horror anthology México Bárbaro and is in post-production on Los Parecidos, a 1968-set piece about a strange phenomenon that besieges a group of passengers waiting for a bus headed to Mexico City. "It’s a privilege to program a horror film in competition for the first time," Aguilar-Castillo says of showing El incidente at this year’s festival, noting that it "opens the door for a wider variety in our future selections."

Mexico City-born moviemaker Carlos Armella has been building a reputation as an international moviemaker to watch for more than a decade now, shortly after he graduated from the London Film School.

In 2008, he won the Golden Lion for Best Short Film at the Venice Film Festival for his short film Tierra y Pan. He has moved on to feature filmmaking with his latest effort, En La Estancia, which Aguilar-Castillo describes as "an amazing experiment that combines fiction and documentary in a narrative that flows smoothly and [portrays] the forgotten loners in rural Mexico."

In Navajazo, Ricardo Silva’s directorial debut, the power of the will to survive is put on full display as the documentary/fiction film hybrid explores the challenging circumstances that surround a group of downtrodden living in Tijuana.

Regardless of its geography, Silva’s filmmaking has made the story relatable to audiences around the world, including an enthralled crowd at the prestigious Locarno Film Festival. "I’m proud that this film was shot in this peninsula," says Aguilar-Castillo. "Tijuana has never had a dissection so precise and raw. But the prizes it has won speak for themselves. This is Mexican cinema at its best."

Gustavo Gamou is that rare kind of filmmaker who can make a political statement cinematic. His crowd-funded The Return of the Dead, which is described on its Indiegogo page as "the story of a tormented man, haunted by the past that tries to find a sense for his existence in the dawn of his life," made its world premiere at the Los Cabos Film Festival one year after it won the festival’s SplendorOmnia prize. "It's a film that speaks universally about a man and the consequences of his decisions," says Aguilar-Castillo.

Arturo Gonzalez Villaseñor puts a human face on the work and spirit of The Patronas, a group of Mexican women who make and toss food to the migrants who ride "The Beast" (a train that takes them between Mexico and the U.S.) on a daily basis in Llévate mis amores. "I'm very proud of having programmed this amazing documentary," says Aguilar-Castillo. "Its characters are full of love and even though it portrays a harsh reality about migration, it never feels manipulative. It’s all about shared love."

Mexico City-based filmmaker Matías Penachino began his career shooting skate videos and has since graduated to commercials and music videos for internationally known brands and artists. More recently, he’s started making films for himself—including the American-Mexican road movie Summum Bonum —which show a clear interest in the nature of relationships.

Aguilar-Castillo calls Summum Bonum "an interesting bet from our programming team. I believe it shows another face of Mexican cinema, one in which we leave Mexican landscapes and thematically far behind and we simply explore different topics through a camera."

Alejandro Franco Fernández takes the rockumentary genre to new heights with For Those About to Rock: The Story of Rodrigo and Gabriela, the inspiring story of Rodrigo Sánchez and Gabriela Quintero, two Mexican guitar players who made the decision to make a living from their art. The film follows them from their beginnings with a Mexico City metal band to the stages of some of the world’s biggest festivals, and exposes their story to the people in the place where they are least known: their home.

"Thanks to Los Cabos 2013, Alejandro was able to premier this rockumentary at SXSW," says Aguilar-Castillo. "I’d love to shine some light on Rodrigo and Gabriela, such amazing talents appreciated internationally but almost unknown in Mexico."