Adriana Paz to Star as Factory-Worker-Turned-Vigilante in “The Huntress”

Adriana Paz is on the hunt for a new project.

The 44-year-old Mexican actress and dancer, a Cannes Film Festival 2024 Best Actress winner alongside the key female cast of Emilia Pérez, will headline The Huntress” (La Cazadora).

Adriana PazPaz will portray a Ciudad Juárez factory worker turned vigilante who attains the status of a legend.

The Huntress marks the first feature from U.S.-Mexican filmmaker Suzanne Andrews Correa whose film Green won the Short Film Jury Award for U.S. Fiction at the Sundance Film Festival.

The Huntress will be produced by Mexico’s Záfiro Cinema, headed by Gabriela Maire and Edher Campos and U.S. outfit The Population, led by Mynette Louie, marking their second Mexico-U.S. co-production after they joined forces for I Carry You With Me, Záfiro Cinema’s first title and a Sundance Audience Award and NEXT Innovator Award winner.

Though Paz’s Cannes win has thrown her into the international spotlight, she has won three Mexican Academy Ariel Awards: Best Actress for Perpetual Sadness (La Tirisia), and Best Supporting Actress for Hilda and Charity (La Caridad).

Most recently, she starred in Arillo the Hombre Muerto.

“It’s easy to say yes when there’s a powerful, meaningful, and well-written story like The Huntress,” Paz told Variety. “I feel very fortunate to portray such a complex character like ‘Luz,’ a woman full of contrasts, confusion, fears, and desires, with such a deep and painful personal conflict.”

Inspired by true events, “The Huntress” turns on Luz who takes justice in her own hands to kill a serial rapist in order to secure a safer and more just world for her fourteen-year-old daughter and other young women factory co-workers in Ciudad Juárez. She also has to face up to the consequences of her actions.

Teresa Sánchez, who won the Sundance Special Jury Award for Acting for Dos Estaciones, Jennifer Trejo, Guillermo Alonso and rapper and acting newcomer Eme Malafe, round out the cast, which has been ensembled by Roma’s casting director Luis Rosales. 

The Huntress is produced in association with Films+Pro, Chemistry and CTT Exp & Rentals. Paz, Rosales and Fabiola Velázquez serve as executive producers.

La Cazadora’s screenplay received grants from the Sundance Institute and SFFILM and awards from the Princess Grace Foundation, Directors Guild of America and Toulouse’s Cinelatino in France.

The film will wrap principal photography by Christmas and is expected to premiere in 2026. It is intended to be a theatrical feature, Campos added.

In real life events, “Diana, Cazadora de Choferes,” was a blond-haired woman, aged 25-40, who shot and killed two bus-drivers in Ciudad Juárez in 2013. Different women had filed at least 12 complaints against bus drivers for sexual violence against women working on Ciudad Juárez’s factories, without any result. After the murders, bus-drivers declared to the press that they feared for their lives.

Since 1993, hundreds of women factory workers have been tortured and killed. Their killers have not been brought to justice.

The Huntress is the portrait of a woman watching her life unravel after falling victim to an act of savagery,” said Paz. “Luz tries to rebuild herself and struggles to survive in a violent environment that offers neither refuge nor trust. The complexity of human actions is deeply explored in her journey,” she added.

“What we want to portray is how The Huntress thinks and feels over these 24 hours, to see her humanity and moral complexity. The film does not treat her as a heroine nor her murders as personal revenge,” Maire told Variety. “Rather, it is meant to be a galvanizing call for change in the way that society protects its most vulnerable populations.”

In many ways, The Huntress is a Western, with the protagonist attempting to create a civilized place in a lawless land.

The Huntress shot in Ciudad Juárez. It was very crucial for us to authentically capture this unique environment, a border town that evokes the essence of classic Westerns. Juárez lies in the heart of the desert, and on the surface, much of it resembles a lonely ghost town. Yet, we discovered another side, one full of life and hope in its people,” said Campos.

“It is a feminist Western, conscious of a long history of female resistance against the impunity of a system. And it’s a mythological Western with elements of Greek tragedy,” said Andrews Correa. “But ultimately, it subverts all that’s represented by the genre, rejecting rudimentary definitions of good and bad.”

“There’s nothing more appealing to me than a project where there’s no black or white, good or bad, and where the female presence behind the camera is as strong as it is in front of it,” Paz added.

Andrews Correa recently worked as a writer and director on the Paramount+ series Minimum Wage (15 a la Hora). They have received grants from the Sundance Institute and SFFILM, and awards from the Princess Grace Foundation, Directors Guild of America, and Toulouse’s Cinelatino.

Juan Pablo González Signs with Buchwald

Juan Pablo González has new representation…

The 38-year-old Mexican filmmaker, whose first narrative feature, Dos Estaciones, claimed a Special Jury Award for Acting and a Grand Jury Prize nom upon its premiere in World Cinematic Dramatic Competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, has signed with Buchwald.

Juan Pablo González,The drama, which picked up for distribution by Cinema Guild, is set in the bucolic hills of Mexico’s Jalisco highlands, watching as iron-willed businesswoman Maria (Teresa Sánchez) fights against the impending collapse of her tequila factory. It also notably screened at New Directors/New Films (MoMA/Lincoln Center), the San Sebastián Film Festival and the Morelia International Film Festival, where Sánchez received the Eye for Best Acting Award, additionally picking up nominations at both the Cinema Eye Honors and the Gotham Awards.

Institutions supporting the film, which González co-wrote and directed, included IMCINE, Nouvelle Aquitaine Fond de Soutien au Cinéma, the Venice Biennale, the Sundance Institute, the Tribeca Film Institute and Cine Qua Non.

Previously helming the hour-long doc Caballerango, which premiered at IDFA Festival in 2018, González was also behind the 2016 narrative short La Espera, which premiered at SXSW and won the Grand Jury Prize at the New Orleans Film Festival. He has been a fellow of the Fund for Culture and Arts in Mexico, was awarded a 2021 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise, and was also named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” in 2015, appearing there alongside the likes of Reinaldo Marcus Green, Trey Edward Shults, Pippa Bianco and recent Oscar winners The Daniels, among others.

Juan Pablo González,

Cinema Guild Acquires U.S. Distribution Rights to Juan Pablo González’s Drama “Dos Estaciones”

Juan Pablo González’s acclaimed film is heading to U.S. theaters…

Cinema Guild has acquired the U.S. distribution rights to the 37-year-old Mexican film director, screenwriter and editor’s fiction feature debut Dos Estaciones, which won a special jury award for lead actor Teresa Sánchez’s performance when it premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.

Juan Pablo GonzálezThe drama follows 50-year-old businesswoman María García (Sánchez), who owns Dos Estaciones—a once-majestic tequila factory now struggling to stay afloat. The factory is the final hold-over from generations of Mexican-owned tequila plants in the highlands of Jalisco, the rest having folded into foreign corporations. Once one of the wealthiest people in town, María knows her current financial situation is untenable. When a persistent plague and an unexpected flood cause irreversible damage, she is forced to do everything she can to save her community’s primary economy and source of pride.

Dos Estaciones was also an official selection of the True/False Film Festival, where González was honored with the True Vision Award, and will screen as part of New Directors/New Films later this month.

The film, which was written by González, Ilana Coleman and Ana Isabel Fernández, also stars Rafaela Fuentes, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Tatín Vera.

“As great admirers of Juan Pablo’s non-fiction work, we’re thrilled to be releasing Dos Estaciones in the U.S.,” said Cinema Guild president Peter Kelly. “The film offers a window on issues facing contemporary Mexico with stunning images and a central performance of remarkable power and grace from Teresa Sánchez.”

“We are so humbled to be working with Cinema Guild, a company that we’ve long admired,” added González. “It’s evident from their catalog that they have a special love for cinema and we fully share that love. They’re the best home we could wish for Dos Estaciones and are so excited to be partnering with them to release such a special film for us.”

Cinema Guild is a premier distributor of world cinema, independent films and documentaries, whose upcoming releases include Hong Sangsoo’s In Front of Your Face and Anthony Banua-Simon’s Cane Fire. Recent releases include Ramon and Silvan Zürcher’s The Girl and the Spider, Fern Silva’s Rock Bottom Riser and Payal Kapadia’s A Night of Knowing Nothing.

K.D. Davila Wins Sundance Film Festival’s Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for Dark Comedy Short “Emergency”

K.D. Davila has a big reason to (sun)dance

Sundance Film Festival organizers have revealed the award winners for its 2022 edition, with the Mexican-American screenwriter among the honorees.

K.D. Davila

Davila was awarded the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for penning the dark comedy short Emergency.

The 12-minute film centers on a group of college students who must weigh the pros and cons of calling the police when faced with an unusual emergency.

Selenis Leyva was among the winners of the Special Jury Award: Ensemble Cast.

The 49-year-old Cuban and Dominican American actress and former Orange Is the New Black star won her award, alongside John Boyega, Nicole Beharie, Connie Britton, Olivia Washington, London Covington and Michael K Williams for their work in 892, the real-life thriller drama film written and directed by Abi Damaris Corbin and co-written by Kwame Kwei-Armah.

There were several Latinx winners in the World Cinema Dramatic competition…

The Grand Jury Prize went to Alejandro Loayza Grisi’s feature debut, the Bolivian film Utama.

Teresa Sánchez picked up the Special Jury Award: Acting for her work in the Mexican film Dos Estaciones. 

Zélia Duncan, Bruna Linzmeyer, Camila Rocha, Clarissa Ribeiro and Lorre Motta won the Special Jury Award: Ensemble Cast for their work in Brazil’s A wild patience has taken me here from director-writer Érica Sarmet.

Due to the recent Omicron surge, the Sundance Film Festival revealed the award winners via Twitter, with honors spread around across the diverse lineup unlike last year.

Here’s the full list of winners:

FESTIVAL FAVORITE AWARD
Navalny
Director: Daniel Roher

U.S. DRAMATIC COMPETITION

Audience Award
Cha Cha Real Smooth
Director-Writer: Cooper Raiff

Grand Jury Award
Nanny
Director-Writer: Nikyatu Jusu

Directing
Jamie Dack
Palm Trees and Power Lines

Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award
K.D. Dávila
Emergency

Special Jury Award: Ensemble Cast
John Boyega, Nicole Beharie, Selenis Leyva, Connie Britton, Olivia Washington, London Covington and Michael K Williams
892

Special Jury Award: Uncompromising Artistic Vision
Bradley Rust Gray
blood

U.S. DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

Audience Award
Navalny
Director: Daniel Roher

Grand Jury Prize
The Exiles (U.S.)
Directors: Ben Klein, Violet Columbus

Directing
Reid Davenport
I Didn’t See You There

Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award
Erin Casper and Jocelyne Chaput
Fire Of Love

Special Jury Award: Impact for Change
Aftershock
Directors: Paula Eiselt, Tonya Lewis Lee

Special Jury Award: Creative Vision
Descendant
Director: Margaret Brown

WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

Audience Award
The Territory (Brazil/Denmark/U.S.)

Grand Jury Prize
All That Breathes (India/UK)
Director: Shaunak Sen

Directing
Simon Lereng Wilmont
A House Made Of Splinters (Denmark)

Special Jury Award: Documentary Craft
The Territory (Brazil/Denmark/U.S.)
Director: Alex Pritz

Special Jury Award: Excellence In Verité Filmmaking
Midwives (Myanmar)
Director: Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing

WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC COMPETITION

Audience Award
Girl Picture (Finland)
Director: Alli Haapasalo

Grand Jury Prize
Utama (Bolvia/Uruguay/France)
Director-Writer: Alejandro Loayza Grisi

Directing
Maryna Er Gorbach
Klondike (Ukraine/Turkey)

Special Jury Award: Innovative Spirit
Leonor Will Never Die (Philippines)
Director-Writer: Martika Ramirez Escobar

Special Jury Award: Acting
Teresa Sánchez
Dos Estaciones (Mexico)

NEXT

Audience Award
Framing Agnes (Canada/U.S.)
Director: Chase Joynt

SHORT FILMS AWARDS

Grand Jury Prize
The Headhunter’s Daughter (Philippines)
Director-Writer: Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan

Jury Award: U.S. Fiction
If I Go Will They Miss Me (U.S.)
Director-writer: Walter Thompson-Hernández

Jury Award: International Fiction
Warsha (France/Lebanon)
Director-writer: Dania Bdeir

Jury Award: Nonfiction
Displaced (Kosovo)
Director-writer: Samir Karahoda

Jury Award: Animation
Night Bus (Taiwan)
Director-writer: Joe Hsieh

Special Jury Award: Ensemble Cast
Zélia Duncan, Bruna Linzmeyer, Camila Rocha, Clarissa Ribeiro and Lorre Motta
A wild patience has taken me here (Brazil)
Director-writer: Érica Sarmet

Special Jury Award: Screenwriting
Sara Driver
Stranger Than Rotterdam with Sara Driver (U.S.)
Directors: Lewie Kloster, Noah Kloster; Writer: Sara Driver

Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize
After Yang

Sundance Institute | Amazon Studios Producers Award for Nonfiction
Su Kim, Free Chol Soo Lee (U.S. Documentary Competition)

Sundance Institute | Amazon Studios Producers Award for Fiction
Amanda Marshall, God’s Country (Premieres)

Sundance Institute | Adobe Mentorship Award for Editing Nonfiction
Toby Shimin

Sundance Institute | Adobe Mentorship Award for Editing Fiction
Dody Dorn

Sundance Institute | NHK Award
Hasan Hadi, The President’s Cake