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Gael Garcia Bernal’s “Chicuarotes” to Open This Year’s Virtual Hola México Film Festival

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Gael Garcia Bernal’s latest project is getting the Hola México treatment…

The 12th annual Hola México Film Festival, the largest Mexican film festival outside of Mexico, will take place virtually and exclusively on Lionsgate and Hemisphere’s Spanish-language streaming platform Pantaya from September 11-20, with the 41-year-old Mexican actor/producer’s Chicuarotes kicking things off.

Gael García Bernal

The festival will feature 20 movies, starting off with Chicuarotes, directed and produced by Garcia Bernal.

The film, which played at the Cannes Film Festival and Toronto Film Festival last year, centers on a pair of young boys from poor backgrounds who perform clown acts on public transportation to make ends meet. The story takes a turn when the young boys begin to rob passengers.

The program will include contemporary features, documentaries, genre fare and family movies, and will include Q&A’s, ‘virtual red carpets’, an awards ceremony and will try to mirror the physical festival in an online way as much as possible.

Other films forming part of this year’s lineup include Matias Meyer’s Amores Modernos, Kenya Marquez’s Asfixia, Marcelino Islas Hernández’s Clases de Historia, Emilio Santoyo’s El Deseo de Ana and Rodrigo Cervantes’ Los Paisajes.

Hola Mexico

“As a result of the current pandemic, we wanted to ensure our industry and filmmaking community continues to connect and develop their careers, even if that cannot happen safely in-person,” commented Samuel Douek, founder and director of the Hola México Film Festival.

The festival’s mentor program Tomorrow’s Filmmakers Today will be a live online program directed to TFT alumni.

Click here for the complete lineup.

Garcia Bernal to Direct His Second Feature Film, “Chicuarotes”

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Gael Garcia Bernal is ready to head back behind the camera…

The 36-year-old Mexican actor, director and producer will helm a “very dark comedy” titled Chicuarotes.

Gael Garcia Bernal

The film is set amid the lakes in Mexico City and centers around teens who “want to become economically superior to what they are,” he said during the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra event dedicated to nurturing emerging Arab filmmakers.

Bernal said his sophomore feature, which follows his 2007 directorial debut Deficit, is being written by Mexican scribe Augusto Mendoza, who co-penned Diego Luna’s feature film debut Abel and Luna’s upcoming Mr. Pig.

Bernal and Luna are partners in Canana, the Mexico City/L.A. production house Luna founded with Bernal and Pablo Cruz and which has become a powerhouse producer for a new generation of Mexican helmers.

“All I can say in a broad way is it’s about kids and that the lake is a paradise; it’s an incredible place with the axolotl,” said Garcia Bernal. The axolotl is an odd-looking ancient salamander with a flat head and spiked feet.

“It’s paradise but these teens want to buy into the whole narrative of progress; to be economically superior to what they are. It’s ridiculous what we go through as humans to become richer,” Garcia Bernal mused.

He’s developing it through Canana with plans to start shooting next year.

During the Doha masterclass in Doha Bernal called his experience directing Deficit, which is a drama about an upper-class Mexican brat, an experiment that just didn’t happen.” He added: “but it gave me a strong sense of vengeance. I want to direct a film next year, one way or another.” Since Deficit Bernal has shot five shorts.