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The 16th edition of the Lumière Film Festival kicked off in high style, with a glittering lineup of stars including Benicio del Toro, Tim Burton, Monica Bellucci and Vanessa Paradis plus high-profile directors Costa-Gavras and Giuseppe Tornatore gracing the red carpet in Lyon.

Bellucci, who’s in town to present a new documentary about the stage play in which she portrays Maria Callas, was among the last to take to the red carpet. After taking a few steps, she turned back with a playful gesture as if she had forgotten something, reached through the curtain, and drew out Tim Burton, to the delight of the 5,000-strong crowd: Burton’s unannounced appearance drew massive applause.

The pair famously met and fell in love in Lyon in 2022, when Burton was the recipient of the festival’s lifetime achievement Lumière Award, which was handed to him by Bellucci. The Italian actress has since...

Fans of classic Mexican cinema have an embarrassment of riches to feast on later this month when the Film at Lincoln Center (Flc) retrospective “Spectacle Every Day: Mexican Popular Cinema” begins. The series, curated and produced in partnership with the Locarno Film Festival and sponsored by Mubi, will feature an eclectic mix of 22 midcentury Mexican films produced from the 1940s through the 1960s.

Running at Flc from July 26-August 8, the series features classic horror movies, film noir, comedies, Westerns, lucha libre superhero movies, and early 3D cinema from one of Mexico’s richest periods of cultural output. Many of the films are either debuting new restorations or, in some cases, screening theatrically in the United States for the first time. The titles were originally screened together as part of a retrospective at the 2023 Locarno Film Festival, which featured 36 Mexican films before trimming its lineup down to 22 entries for the New York remounting.

Mid-century Mexican films are being feted at the Film at Lincoln Center as part of a new partnership with the Locarno Film Festival. Titled Spectacle Every Day: Mexican Popular Cinema, the program spans Mexican cinema from the ’40s through the ’60s, featuring works from directors such as Roberto Gavaldón, Emilio Fernández, Julio Bracho, Alejandro Galindo, and Chano Urueta. The 22-film retrospective takes place at Flc from July 26 through August 8.

Highlights include the 4K restoration of Julio Bracho’s “Take Me in Your Arms” (1954), Alejandro Galindo’s “Wetbacks” (1955), “The Sword of Granada” (1953) which was the first 3-D film produced in Mexico, and Matilde Landeta’s sex work melodrama “Streetwalker” (1951). Landeta was one of the country’s first female directors.

The features screening as part of Spectacle Every Day: Mexican Popular Cinema have been rarely screened stateside. Some even have never before seen theatrically in the United States, per the official press release.

Guadalajara, Mexico — Mexico’s Ernesto Contreras, best known for his lauded Sundance Audience Award winner “I Dream in Another Language” is preparing his next feature film, “Cosas Imposibles” (“Impossible Things”).

“I Dream…” producers Monica Lozano and Eamon O’Farrill of Alebrije Prods. and Luis Albores and Érika Ávila of Contreras’ Agencia Sha, are re-teaming to make the dramedy.

Set in a Mexico City housing complex, “Impossible Things” turns on a woman in her 60s whose dead abusive husband continues to torment her, but only in her head. She strikes an unlikely friendship with a troubled 19-year-old neighbor. Together they help each other to shake off their inner demons.

Story is by novice writer Fanie Soto, a Guadalajara native, whose first script won the Matilde Landeta top award given to female scriptwriters. “I was intrigued by what the juror said about it and asked to read it,” said Contreras, adding: “I...