Los Cabos International Film Festival 2021

This year, the Los Cabos International Film Festival will screen some of the most important films of the year, recognize the careers of two great representatives of North American filmmaking and hold a series of conversations focused on rethinking our participation in the future of cinema.

Los Cabos International Film Festival 2021
Los Cabos International Film Festival. Photo by Felix Mooneeram / Unsplash

Celebrating its tenth anniversary, the Los Cabos International Film Festival announced its program which includes the screening of some of the most important films of the year, the recognition of the careers of two great representatives of North American cinema, and a series of conversations focused on rethinking our participation in the future of cinema. Until November 18, audiences across the country will be able to enjoy more than twenty films that ignite our senses and lead us to look at the world with different eyes.

Among the productions are Murina, the winner of the Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival; Luchadoras, the long-awaited documentary by filmmakers Paola Calvo and Patrick Jasim, which is part of the Los Cabos Competition; River, the unmissable film essay presented in the Green Strand section, curated in collaboration with the Climate Crisis Film Festival (CCFF) of the United Kingdom; and Belfast, a film by the filmmakers Paola Calvo and Patrick Jasim, curated in collaboration with the Climate Crisis Film Festival (CCFF) of the United Kingdom; and Belfast, a film by Kenneth Branagh that is on its way to the Oscars after winning the Audience Award at the Toronto Film Festival, which Mexican audiences will be able to see in the special Golden Screen section that will be shown simultaneously for the first time in theaters in Los Cabos, Mexico City, and Mérida.

"Our activities will begin with a unique conversation where director Alejandra Márquez Abella will join us to recognize the career of producer Nicolás Celis, who honors us by receiving this year's outstanding work in Cinema Award - Production. Two of his most recent works, Noche de Fuego, selected by the Mexican Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMACC) to compete for the Oscar and Drunken Birds, chosen by Canada to represent them at the upcoming Academy Awards, will be available for viewing -for the first time- online.

The wonderful scenery of Baja California Sur will also be honored by the Festival with La Baja Inspira, a new competitive section comprised of three productions that took inspiration from the deserts and seas of what has been home to this film encounter for the past ten years.

"As part of our alliance with the Climate Crisis Film Festival, the Festival will host the IngniteSessions: 7 perspectives for a greener film and festival industry, where ecological thinking will be promoted to transform the practices that govern the film industry and improve our relationship with the environment," they explained. This tenth edition will end on November 18, with a brief closing event where the winners of the various prizes awarded in collaboration with its partners and sponsors will be announced.

Nos hicieron noche, the documentary that explores legends about Afro-Mexicanity in Oaxaca

Among the film offerings of Los Cabos, 2021 is the documentary Nos hicieron noche (They Made Us Night) by Antonio Hernández. Its story explores, among mythological tales of Afro-Mexicanity, how the Salinas Tello family and the rest of the community of Charco Redondo faced a natural disaster that put their lives at risk. Through magical beings, such as the tonales (men with the ability to turn into animals) and a handful of ancestral legends, magical realism is present in this story of resilience.

Some of the films will be shown in theaters in different parts of Mexico, such as Cinemex Puerto Paraíso in Los Cabos; Cinemex Reforma 222 in Mexico City and Cinemex Galerías in Mérida.