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Prime Video has announced the lineup of movies and TV shows that will be available on the service in October. The Prime Video October 2024 lineup includes new Amazon original movies, TV shows, and specials. Below, you can also view the titles available on Amazon Freevee.

Members can look forward to Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity?, Brothers, Citadel: Diana, Faceoff: Inside the NHL, The Devil’s Hour Season 2, House of Spoils, Killer Cakes, The Legend of Vox Machina Season 3, Like a Dragon: Yakuza, The Office (Australia), The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh, and more.

And, to celebrate James Bond Day on October 5, all 25 James Bond movies are now streaming on Prime Video as well!

House of Spoils Prime Video Originals

The Prime Video October 2024 programming includes the following Originals.

House of Spoils (2024 – Streaming October 3)

From Blumhouse, House of Spoils follows an ambitious chef (Ariana DeBose) as she opens a restaurant on a...

Right off the bat, Non Negotiable dives into high-stakes drama with humor and heart. It stars Mauricio Ochmann as Alan Binder, Mexico’s top hostage negotiator. His skill at reading people helps keep calm in crises but causes problems at home with wife Victoria, played delightfully by Tato Alexander.

When the President is taken, Alan faces his biggest challenge yet—made more personal when Victoria ends up in danger too. Meanwhile we meet the complex kidnapper Vicente, brought to layered life by Leonardo Ortizgris. Through his eyes, we learn how one wrong turn can derail a life, though his methods raise troubling questions.

This hostage thriller pulls us in with wit, pacing its reveals expertly. We root for Alan through nail-biting negotiation scenes, also cheering for Victoria’s spirit. Their relationship feels authentic; hits and humors rang true. Deeper still, corruption themes give food for thought long after closing.

While...

“Non Negotiable” is a Mexican thriller movie starring Mauricio Ochmann, Leonardo Ortizgris and Tato Alexander.

“Non Negotiable” is a fun Mexican movie that skillfully mixes thriller with comedy, with a lot of comedy. Corrupt politicians who are kidnapped give a lot of play, especially if you take life as a joke as Juan Taratuto, the film’s director, does.

Without changing your life or offering you great truths, “Non Negotiable” entertains and, above all, it will make you smile with that Mexican sense of humor that we love.

Plot

The President is kidnapped and everything revolves around a negotiator, a compulsive liar who will have to solve a personal problem: his wife has also been kidnapped.

The kidnapper asks for money, but not for himself, but for institutions, hospitals and health centers. The kidnapper is, apparently, a vigilante who denounces the corruption of the President.

About the movie

Very funny,...

When a hostage negotiator on the brink of divorce is faced with rescuing both his abducted wife and the president of Mexico, his mediation skills may save lives … and, hopefully, his marriage. The Mexican comedy thriller Non Negotiable, starring Mauricio Ochmann, Leonardo Ortizgris, and Tato Alexander, was directed by Juan Taratuto (The Reconstruction). Based on an original idea by Alejandro De Grazia (Almost Happy), the film was written by Julieta Steinberg (Death’s Roulette), Joe Rendón (Harina), Daniel Cúparo (An Unexpected Love), and Marcelo Birmajer (Periodismo para Todos).

Stream it now.

Check it out at the top of this page.

Alan Bender (Ochmann), the best hostage negotiator in Mexico, is so committed to his job that he neglects his family — much to the dismay of his wife, Victoria (Alexander). The two begin couples therapy to work on their issues, but it may be too late: Bender finds out Victoria’s...

"Today we need them to give us some answers." A Netflix Original film from Mexico. Netflix has revealed an official trailer for a Mexican kidnapping thriller titled Non Negotiable, starring Mauricio Ochmann as a hostage negotiator. This film is a strange comedy thriller mash-up set for release streaming on Netflix worldwide at the end of July. Hostage negotiator Alan Binder (aka Bender) is called to rescue the president from a kidnapping, only to find himself also mediating to save his wife and marriage, too. Binder is a skillful hostage negotiator, the best in Mexico, who will face the most crucial case of his career when the President and his lover are kidnapped. And the kidnapper demands to negotiate only with him. Starring Ochmann as Binder, along with Leonardo Ortizgris, Tato Alexander, Geraldine Zinat, and Fernanda Borches. Does the humor in this work? Does the concept make this worth a watch?...

"He's going to break your heart, but that's what friend are for." Freestyle Digital Media has debuted a new US trailer for a Chilean indie film titled My Tender Matador, also known as Tengo Miedo Torero in Spanish. This originally premiered in the Venice Days sidebar at the Venice Film Festival last year. Amid the political turmoil during 1980s in Chile, a lonely transvestite engages in a risky clandestine operation after falling in love with a guerrilla who asks her to hide dangerous secrets of the revolution at home. Based on the groundbreaking novel by queer icon Pedro Lemebel, the film received positive reviews praising the lead performances: "Castro and Ortizgris work wonderfully together, their rapport an easy one, the truth of their potential relationship less important than the bonhomie they share." Starring Alfredo Castro, Leonardo Ortizgris, and Julieta Zylberberg. This looks quite unique, capturing the intricacies of Chile in the 80s.

Kino Lorber has acquired distributor Artsploitation Films from its owner and president Ray Murray. Murray and his team will remain with the business as a Kino Lorber brand and division. The deal for Artsploitation, which releases international genre and cutting-edge specialty films, adds 100 titles to Kino Lorber’s library that now has more than 4,000.

Kino Lorber said its new Artsploitation division will acquire rights to 6-8 future theatrical titles per year to bring to market under the banner “Artsploitation, A Kino Lorber Company,” as well as direct to digital and home entertainment releases. It will take over exclusive distribution of all previous Artsploitation titles for all digital media, home video, educational and repertory theatrical markets.

Previously, Kino Lorber handled ancillary media distribution for Artsploitation as a third-party label, as it continues to do for the likes of Zeitgeist Films, Cohen Media Group, Greenwich Entertainment, Palisades Tartan, Virgil Films, Menemsha, Raro Video and others.

Among the many praiseworthy qualities of “My Tender Matador,” the most notable is its honesty. It would have been so easy for the film, about a transgender woman in Pinochet’s Chile and her relationship with a straight political activist, to have overplayed its hand with ill-judged sentiment or sensationalism, but instead director Rodrigo Sepúlveda Urzúa guides everything just right, from the refusal to treat anyone with less than full respect to the superb ensemble, and from Sergio Armstrong’s carefully calibrated camerawork to the thoughtful understanding of how daylight changes a person who’s lived fullest under the protection of the night. Based on the groundbreaking novel by queer icon Pedro Lemebel, the film deserves better treatment than most international gay-themed dramas get.

Alfredo Castro’s versatility shouldn’t be taken for granted, but how can we not when he keeps delivering one fully rounded performance after another? Here...

Chile’s Forastero has shared with Variety the first trailer for it is highly anticipated, pan-Latin American co-production “My Tender Matador,” staring the country’s most prolific lead actor Alfredo Castro “The Club”).

Co-produced by Forestero in Chile, Tornado in Argentina, Caponeto in Mexico and Zapik Films in Chile, the feature is directed by Rodrigo Sepúlveda Urzúa and based on the the novel by celebrated Chilean writer Pedro Lemebel, a figure decades ahead of his time is his advocacy of gender issues, in an archly conservative Chile under and after the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

Turning on an intimate friendship, the 1986-set feature tells the story of an impoverished, elderly, cross-dresser known as the Queen of the Corner (Castro). After falling in love with a charming guerrilla, the character gets swept up in a covert anti-Pinochet operation.

In the trailer we see the first encounter between the two, and the...

Panama’s internationally best-known helmer, Abner Benaim (“Ruben Blades Is Not My Name”) has moved into pre-production on his second fiction feature film, “Plaza Catedral,” which is set to star Mexico’s Ilse Salas, who has just won Mexican Academy’s Ariel Award for best actress for her performance in Alejandra Marquez’s Toronto hit “The Good Girls.”

Salas has also starred in both movies to date from Alonso Ruizpalacios, with Marquéz Mexico’s fasting-rising new director, whose “Museum”proved a standout at the Berlin and Toronto Festivals last year.

“Plaza Catedral” is scheduled to begin its six-week shoot in Panama City in August. In it, Salas plays a 42 year old grief-stricken woman who has severed her ties with married life and society.

“This complex, melancholy character finds herself in the tropical paradise that Panamá pretends to be, with its primary colors and a society obsessed with economic success and having a good time,...

The Mexican Academy of Arts and Cinematographic Sciences hosted the 61st edition of their Ariel Awards on Monday evening, where Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma” and Alejandra Márquez Abella’s “The Good Girls” stood out among the winners.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Cuarón’s “Roma” scooping best picture is that it’s only the second of his films to win an Ariel award, and the first to be nominated for best picture. In 1992 “Sólo con Tu Pareja” was nominated for best first work and screenplay, and won best original story. In 2001 he chose not to submit his Oscar-nominated classic “Y tu mamá también” in protest at the Academy’s voting practices.

By the end of the Monday evening however, “Roma” netted 10 prizes, including best director, supporting actress, photography, screenplay, editing, sound, art design, visual effects and special effects to go along with the best picture prize.

A festival darling over the past year,...

Alonso Ruizpalacios’ two features to date are both about Mexico City’s recent past. The writer-director first gained international visibility with 2014’s Güeros, a black-and-white road trip movie set in the 1990s using the protests at the National Autonomous University of Mexico as backdrop for an intimate coming-of-age plot. For his sophomore venture, Museo, Ruizpalacios enlisted major star Gael García Bernal and one of Güeros’ cast members, Leonardo Ortizgris, to address a larger than life, yet based on real life, crime story. 1985 was a chaotic year for Mexico City, aside from the devastation left in the wake of a massive earthquake […]...

Alonso Ruizpalacios’ two features to date are both about Mexico City’s recent past. The writer-director first gained international visibility with 2014’s Güeros, a black-and-white road trip movie set in the 1990s using the protests at the National Autonomous University of Mexico as backdrop for an intimate coming-of-age plot. For his sophomore venture, Museo, Ruizpalacios enlisted major star Gael García Bernal and one of Güeros’ cast members, Leonardo Ortizgris, to address a larger than life, yet based on real life, crime story. 1985 was a chaotic year for Mexico City, aside from the devastation left in the wake of a massive earthquake […]...

When telling the true story of the 1985 robbery of the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, director Alonso Ruizpalacios said that his film, “Museo,” ended up teaching him something unexpected about the relationship between fact and fiction.

“We really took a left turn and went our own way,” Ruizpalacios told TheWrap at the Toronto International Film Festival. “Sometimes you find that when telling a story based on facts, they become a constraint for fiction…for a film to work.”

“Museo” follows Gael Garcia Bernal and Leonardo Ortizgris as Juan and Benjamin, two slacker veterinarian students who come up with a plan to rob the museum after Juan takes a part-time job there. Despite their bumbling nature, they are surprisingly able to pull it off, only to realize that actually making a profit off their gains after becoming hated thieves is nigh impossible.

Also Read: Emilio Estevez: In Today's...

Pure Flix breaks into top 10 with faith-based drama Unbroken: Path To redemption.

September 17 Update: Shane Black’s action reboot The Predator returned to its North American hunting ground on a confirmed $24.6m through Fox and pushed Warner Bros’ horror hit The Nun into second place on $18.2m in its second weekend.

The Predator arrived in 4,037 theatres 31 years after Arnold Schwarzenegger took arms against the alien warriors in John McTiernan’s original tentpole. Olivia Munn, Jacob Tremblay, Sterling K. Brown and Trevante Rhodes star in the new story about a boy who accidentally enables the lethal predator hunters to return to earth,...

Pure Flix breaks into top 10 with faith-based drama Unbroken: Path To redemption.

Shane Black’s action reboot The Predator returned to its North American hunting ground on an estimated $24m through Fox and pushed Warner Bros’ horror hit The Nun into second place on $18.2m in its second weekend.

The Predator arrived in 4,037 theatres 31 years after Arnold Schwarzenegger took arms against the alien warriors in John McTiernan’s original tentpole. Olivia Munn, Jacob Tremblay, Sterling K. Brown and Trevante Rhodes star in the new story about a boy who accidentally enables the lethal predator hunters to return to earth, where...

Gael Garcia Bernal stars in heist film and Tiff selection.

Cinepolis Distribution has revealed plans for the Mexican release of Gael Garcia Bernal heist film and Tiff selection Museo and announced a raft of Latin American sales.

Alonso Ruizpalacios’ film, which as Screen first reported is the first Spanish-language YouTube Original, will open in the Mexican director’s home country on October 26 in 500 cinemas.

Bernal stars alongside Leonardo Ortizgris in the film, which received its North American premiere in Toronto and is loosely based on the infamous Christmas Eve 1985 theft of pre-Columbian artifacts from Mexico City’s hallowed National Museum of Anthropology.

Museo Reviewed by: Harvey Karten Director: Alonso Ruizpalacios Screenwriters: Manuel Alcalá, Alonso Ruizpalacios Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal, Leonardo Ortizgris, Alfredo Castro, Simon Russell Beale, Lisa Owen, Bernardo Velasco, Ilse Salas, Leticia Brédice Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 9/6/18 Opens: September 14, 2018 People obsessed with materialism often find that their booty makes them into virtual […]

The post Museo Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

YouTube’s first Spanish-language project will be hitting theaters before moving to stream exclusively on YouTube Premium, the platform announced today. Museo, written and directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios (Güeros) and starring Gael Garcia Bernal (Coco), will chronicle the true story of a 1985 heist that saw 140 Mayan and Meso-American artifacts stolen from Mexico’s National Anthropology Museum.

“As our first-ever Spanish language YouTube Original movie, Museo is one of the many exciting projects we have in the pipeline as we embark to expand our slate with more original series and movies in Spanish,” Susanne Daniels, YouTube’s global head of original content, said.

In Museo, García Bernal and co-star Leonardo Ortizgris (Güeros) play a pair of thirtysomething veterinary students who decide to break out of their mutual slump and make a name for themselves by pulling off an infamous cultural caper. Simon Russell Beale (Into The Woods) will play an art...

YouTube has revealed details of its first Spanish-language project – boarding Gael Garcia Bernal-fronted Mexican heist thriller Museo, which has its North American premiere in Toronto.

The Google-owned company is to launch the film on YouTube Premium later this year after a theatrical debut. The film was inspired by the most infamous cultural artifact heist in Mexican history, when two regular guys looted 140 priceless Mayan and Meso-American pieces from Mexico’s National Anthropology Museum on Christmas Eve 1985.

Garcia Bernal stars alongside Leonardo Ortizgris and Alfredo Castro in the two-hour thriller.

Co-produced and co-financed by Panorama Global, Ring Cine, Detalle Films, Distant Horizon and Serendipity Point Films, it was written and directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios (Gueros), and was co-written with Manuel Alcalá (Bellas de Noche). Museo premiered at the 2018 Berlin Film Festival, where Ruizpalacios and Alcalá won the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay and was also nominated for a Gold Bear...

Alonso Ruizpalacios’ second feature will get autumn theatrical release before launch on subcription platform YouTube Premium.

Signalling its ambitions to build a global entertainment platform, YouTube has acquired Alonso Ruizpalacios’ Museo starring Gael García Bernal and Leonardo Ortizgris as its first Spanish-language YouTube Original film ahead of the Mexican heist saga’s North American premiere at Tiff.

YouTube global head of original content Susanne Daniels and her team will regard Museo, which screens to press and industry on Thursday (September 6) and receives its North American premere on September 11, as a prestige catch as the platform rolls out across the world.

Alonso Ruizpalacios’ second feature will get autumn theatrical release before launch on subcription platform YouTube Premium.

Signalling its ambitions to build a global entertainment platform, YouTube has acquired Alonso Ruizpalacios’ Museo starring Gael García Bernal and Leonardo Ortizgris as its first Spanish-language YouTube Original film ahead of the Mexican heist saga’s North American premiere at Tiff.

YouTube global head of original content Susanne Daniels and her team will regard Museo, which screens to press and industry on Thursday (September 6) and receives its North American premere on September 11, as a prestige catch as the platform rolls out across the world.

"They're looking for you everywhere." Vitagraph Films has debuted the first official trailer for a peculiar, fascinating indie film titled Museo, from acclaimed Mexican filmmaker Alonso Ruiz Palacios (Güeros). Museo, which translates to Museum, premiered at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year. Inspired by true events, and shot on never-before filmed locations in Mexico, it's a "sardonic cautionary tale" the reiterates old adage: you don't know what you have until you lose it. Gael Garcia Bernal and Leonardo Ortizgris star as friends in Mexico City who decide to steal 140 pre-Hispanic pieces from the National Museum of Anthropology, but run into some troubles. Also featuring Alfredo Castro, Lynn Gilmartin, Ilse Salas, and Simon Russell Beale. I saw this at Berlinale and it's fantastic, a great film with a deep meaning to it. Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Alonso Ruiz Palacios' Museo, direct from YouTube: Well into their 30s,...

Vitagraph Films, the U.S. distributor of Alonso Ruizpalacios’ “Museo,” starring Gael García Bernal, which is arguably the best-received Latin American movie to date this year, has dropped the film’s first trailer, ahead of its North American premiere at the Toronto Festival and U.S theatrical roll-out.

Also screening at the Los Angeles Film Festival in September and the Mill Valley Film Festival in October, “Museo” will be released in NewYork from Sept. 14, in Washington D.C. and South Florida from Sept. 21 and in Los Angeles a week later. Other markets will follow. Variety has had exclusive access to the film’s trailer and poster.

A “gorgeous, giddy shaggy-dog movie,” Variety announced upon the film’s world premiere in competition at Berlin, “Museo,” which is sold by Luxbox, won a Silver Bear for best screenplay at this year’s Berlinale, garnering some of the festival’s best reviews.

Ruizpalacios...

A full seventeen years after Gael García Bernal came to the attention of international audiences with Y Tu Mamá También we find the ageless wonder once again playing an idealistic young man who is accused of jerking off too often. The film in question is Museum, a dramatization of–or, as the film cheekily states, “replica” of–events that took place in 1985 when two young men stole a bounty of priceless Mayan artifacts from the national museum in Mexico City on Christmas Eve.

It is the latest work of Alonso Ruizpalacios, an obliquely political filmmaker with an eye for cinematic homage. His latest is essentially a heist movie, but it’s one that utilizes those strengths in order to subvert the conventions of an overly familiar genre. In doing so, however, it forgoes a little bit of what provides that type of filmmaking with such narrative élan.

Ruizpalacios’ robbers are...

Inspired by a real life robbery, this yarn about a pair of gormless students stealing priceless ancient artefacts is an entertaining and highly watchable thriller

A deeply preposterous event from modern Mexican history has been turned into a watchable and good-natured dramedy-thriller from director Alonzo Ruizpalacios, who made a terrific new wave-style feature debut in 2014 with his freewheeling movie Güeros. Museum stars Gael Garcia Bernal as a feckless but mercurial student of veterinary medicine; Alfredo Castro is his disapproving father and Simon Russell Beale plays a cynical dealer in ancient artefacts.

In 1985, all of Mexico was horrified when thieves were reported to have broken into the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City and stolen 140 priceless Mayan and Aztec objects; the news media solemnly reported that the heist was surely the work of a sophisticated international gang. Their patriotic outrage turned to embarrassment when the crime was found to be the work of two students,...

Heist film has World Premiere in Competition at Berlinale.

Paris-based Luxbox will represent international sales on Alonso Ruizpalacios’ Museum (Museo), a heist drama exploring Mexico’s past starring Gael García Bernal.

Based loosely on true events, Museum sees two veterinary school drop-outs who commit a heist at Mexico’s Anthropology Museum, but find themselves cursed by the treasure they take.

Alongside García Bernal in the cast are Leonardo Ortizgris, Alfredo Castro and The Death Of Stalin’s Simon Russell Beale.

Ruizpalacios, who won the best first feature award at the 2014 Berlinale for Gueros, co-wrote the screenplay with Manuel Alcalá, while Alcalá, Ramiro Ruiz, and Gerardo Gatica and Alberto Müffelmann of Panorama Global produced.

Distant Horizon signed Luxbox to the film and president Anant Singh praised the company’s “solid track record representing foreign language films.” Hedi Zardi of Luxbox called the film “an impressive artistic achievement…pure pleasure for cinema audiences worldwide. We launch sales at...

Cinépolis Distribución picks up film starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Simon Russell Beale.

Cinépolis Distribución has taken Latin American rights from world sales agent Distant Horizon to Alonso Ruizpalacios’ Museum (Museo) ahead of the world premiere in competition in Berlin on February 22.

Loosely based on true events, Museum follows two veterinary school drop-outs as they attempt a high-stakes heist by looting Mexico’s sacred Anthropology Museum.

The film stars Gael Garcia Bernal, Leonardo Ortizgris, Alfredo Castro and Simon Russell Beale.

Ruizpalacios, who won the best first feature award at the 2014 Berlinale for Gueros, co-wrote the screenplay with Manuel Alcalá, while Alcalá, Ramiro Ruiz, and Gerardo Gatica and Alberto Müffelmann of Panorama Global produced.

Gatica said: “We are extremely happy to continue our long-time relationship with Cinépolis. Museo will be the biggest release in the history of Cinépolis Distribución.”

Head of Cinépolis distribution Leo Cordero added: “In our quest for outstanding stories to distribute through Cinépolis Distribución, Museo stands...

Cinépolis Distribución picks up film starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Simon Russell Beale.

Cinépolis Distribución has taken Latin America rights to Alonso Ruizpalacios’ Museo ahead of the film’s world premiere in Berlin’s Official Competition on February 22.

Loosely based on true events, Museo depicts two veterinary school drop-outs attempting a high-stakes heist by looting Mexico’s sacred Anthropology Museum.

It stars Gael Garcia Bernal, Leonardo Ortizgris, Alfredo Castro and Simon Russell Beale.

The film was written by Ruizpalacios and Manuel Alcalá and produced by Alcalá, Ramiro Ruiz, and Gerardo Gatica and Alberto Müffelmann of Panorama Global.

Distant Horizon is handling worldwide sales.

Gatica commented: “We are extremely happy to continue our long-time relationship with Cinépolis. Museo will be the biggest release in the history of Cinépolis Distribución.”

Head of Cinépolis distribución Leo Cordero added: “In our quest for outstanding stories to distribute through Cinépolis Distribución, Museo stands out as one of the best and most compelling...

As the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival starts this Thursday, the first big European festival of year will unleash almost 400 movies of all shapes and sizes. From high-profile premieres like Wes Anderson’s opening night entry “Isle of Dogs,” to bold offerings from bright European directors like Christian Petzold and Corneliu Porumboiu, and a wide array of work by emerging filmmakers from all over the world, the Berlinale is an incredibly eclectic (and almost overwhelmingly large) cornucopia of new cinema.

Read More: Berlinale Director Dieter Kosslick Will Step Down After 2019 Festival

IndieWire will be on the ground in Germany, bringing you the latest from Potsdamer Platz. Here are the 10 features that we’re most excited to see at this year’s festival.

“Eva” (Benoit Jacquot)

If it’s Huppert, we’re there. No decent European film festival is complete without at least one appearance by Isabelle Huppert, and we’re pleased...

Rupert Everett’s The Happy Prince and Pernille Fischer Christensen’s Unga Astrid picked for Berlinale Special.

Source: Wiki Commons

Steven Soderbergh, José Padilha

Five more films have joined the main lieups of the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 15 - 25). A further six films have been selected for the programme of the Berlinale Special.

Steven Soderbergh’s Unsane will get an out of competition world premiere. It stars Claire Foy, Joshua Leonard, Jay Pharoah and Juno Temple and was reportedly shot on iPhone.

Also premiering out of competition is José Padilha’s true story thriller 7 Days In Entebbe, starring Rosamund Pike, Daniel Brühl and Eddie Marsan.

New films from Lav Diaz and Alonso Ruizpalacios will play in competition.

Rupert Everett’s Oscar Wilde biopic The Happy Prince and Becoming Astrid by Pernille Fischer Christensen have been added to the Berlinale Special Gala section.

Read more: Robert Pattinson, Christian Petzold movies join Berlin Film Festival Competition

23 of the 24 titles...

Using one of the most cosmopolitan and complex cities in the world as his canvas, Mexican filmmaker Alonso Ruizpalacios has delivered an audaciously original story that delves into many unique aspects of Mexican society wrapped up into a road trip adventure that helps two estrange brothers reconnect. Set in Mexico City during the 1999 Unam (Mexico’s National University) protests, “Güeros” is a black-and-white sophisticated comedy that uses a teenager’s desire to meet a washed up iconic singer as its driving force.

Sombra (Tenoch Huerta) and Santos (Leonardo Ortizgris) are two college-age slackers who lived aimlessly in a disheveled apartment. The pair doesn’t care much for the student movement, anything else really, until Sombra’s younger brother Tomas (Sebastián Aguirre) arrives in the city after getting in trouble in his coastal hometown. Joined by fierce protester and Sombra’s failed love interest, Ana (Ilse Salas), the group travels across the beautifully chaotic metropolis in search of Epigmenio Cruz, Tomas’ musical idol.

The title is a term that refers to light-skinned or blonde people, but it’s also often used in Mexico as synonym for the upper class. In the film, Ruizpalacios is clever enough to tackle the implications of the word in a way that comments on the Mexican society’s views on race, while remaining accessible and darkly comedic. “Güeros” is a deeply intelligent film that blends numerous ideas in a bold and successful fashion. It’s a revitalizing work, and one of the best Mexican films of the last decade.

The director's next projects include a film titled “Mueseo,” which deals with a theft to Mexico City’s Anthropology Museum in 1985 and another film that’s an adaptation from a play called “The Kitchen,” which is about Mexican immigrants in New York. We had the chance to talk with Ruiz Palacios about his acclaimed debut and the city that inspired it.

"Güeros" is currently playing in NYC at the Film Forum and its being distributed by Kino Lorber

*Note this interview took place prior to the film's release in its native Mexico.

Carlos Aguilar: Was a making a film that highlighted Mexico City as a unique location your original intent? If not, how did the concept for “Güeros” originated?

Alonso Ruizpalacios: The origin of the film was the need to make a love letter to Mexico City, which is the city where I’ve lived my whole life. Most people who grew up there spent a lot of time in their cars. We essentially lived in our cars, we eat in our cars, we fuck there, and we get into fights there. The city and cars are very connected. It felt logical. Once I started making the film I also had this need to get to know the city better, because you can’t ever get to know it fully. It’s a city that has a lot of borders and it has places were you can’t really go. There are certain taboos about some places within the city. Therefore, this idea of crossing these borders, to get to know the city more, and to become one with it, was one of the main objectives of making the film. Another thing was the memory of something my friends used to do to kill time when they were in the 99 protests, which was to get in one of their cars and drive without a destination as far as they could go. This idea of driving without destination and rediscovering Mexico City were part of the images I had in mind when making the film.

Aguilar: The film touches on a lot of issues within Mexican society, one of them is the class divide that is often tied to racial prejudices. It's something we are all aware of, but it's hardly ever discussed.

Alonso Ruizpalacios: That’s definitely one of the themes, but I wouldn’t say is the central theme. I think that when making a film about Mexico City you can’t avoid portraying the class differences, the classism, and racism that exists. Often times this is not as evident as in other countries or as it was in other time periods, we supposedly have reached a certain level of acceptance or equality, but in reality there is a lot of social tension. Dealing with this is very complex because it’s a sensitive topic that not even we, as Mexicans, dare to accept. It’s important to start by accepting its existence. People are still racist, in a way dark skinned people dissociated themselves from the “güeros” [Light-skinned people], and vice versa, the “güeros” dissociated themselves from dark-skinned people.

I feel like our works of fiction, novels or films, have not really looked at that aspect of “Mexicaness”or Mexican identity. It’s something that’s rarely talked about. In the U.S there is a tradition or openness to talk about racial issues, but in Mexico we pretend like they don’t exist. When you actually show them it becomes a sensitive topic, that’s why I think comedy is the perfect tool to discuss anything. Comedy has “carte blanche” to deal with any subject. There have been people that have told me the film is racist, and I react like “What?” It’s absurd. Just because the film talks about racism doesn’t mean it’s a racist film.

Aguilar: What has been the Mexican audience's reaction so far?

Alonso Ruizpalacios: The film hasn’t opened in Mexico, so the only thermometer we had was the Morelia Film Festival where the film had its Mexican premiere. Reactions were very positive. Besides winning Best Film we also won the Audience Award, which is very significant. However, it’s also a film that has received impassioned negative responses. People have sent us hate mail mostly regarding the protests, some people who were part of those protests felt that the way the events are portrayed is offensive or that we are poking fun at them. I don’t see it that way. Of course, there is a hint of irony in the way we look at the events, but there are also elements that vindicate those student movements and the idea of being young and being revolutionary.

Aguilar: It seems like a great number of Mexican films, particularly those we get to see abroad, come from a very dark place and focus on the violent and political situation of the country. Your film touches on this in a comical manner, even making fun of itself.

Alonso Ruizpalacios: I think that’s true. Lately, Mexican cinema has been very present at international film festivals, my film included, but I also have to say that “Güeros” is also a self-parody regarding this. You can’t create a parody if you don’t make fun of yourself first. The films we make in Mexico are often made thinking on their foreign potential rather than for Mexican people to enjoy. In some of these films we sell an image of Mexico, as “Sombra” says in the film, in which we are portrayed as cheaters, atheists, “putañero” (whoremongers), “malacopas” (bad drinkers), insecure,

Aguilar: In that sense would you say "Güeros" offers a refreshing, more optimistic, perspective?

Alonso Ruizpalacios: I do feel it’s a luminous film in the sense that we made with the intention to allow ourselves to be surprised by the city. To allow yourself to be surprised is very important, it’s one of the ways in which one can get out of a rot. The characters are trapped in this limbo of inactivity and routine because they haven’t left their apartment in a long time. It’s only when they go out and discover new things that their lives improve. I think the central theme is the change from being static to being in movement. Healing through movement.

Aguilar: One of the most enjoyable and sophisticated elements of the films is the dialogue. It's definitely hilarious and poignant at the same time. How did you manage to achieve this natural and easygoing feel while still hitting all the right emotional notes?

Alonso Ruizpalacios: I knew that I wanted a percentage of the film to be improvised and to be fresh. We knew we wouldn’t get something natural if we wrote it all very rigidly. I designated a few specific scenes for the actors to improvise, but the rest of the film was very well structured. I wrote the script with Gibran Portela, with whom I had worked in theater before. In theater you get really involved in the dialogue, so for the film we really worked on it for it to have a peculiar rhythm. The film is a strange mix between very well structured sequences, very refined, and others much more improvised to find this freshness. For example, the part where “Sombra” and Ana do a scene from Buñuel’s “Los Olvidados,” was a sequence we improvised. We gave the actors a bottle of mezcal and got them drunk. We were shooting them as they joked around. But there were also other moments in which I didn’t want them change any of the words from the screenplay.

Aguilar: Tell me about your thought process when deciding the visual look of the film. What inspired your choices in terms of the spectacular cinematography/

Alonso Ruizpalacios: Making a film is about finding the right rules that work for that film specifically. In that sense, I think among the rules we found while in the process of developing the film and then shooting it, the first one was that we wanted the camera to be very static at first to emphasize the guys’ inactivity, and once they leave the apartment we wanted the camera to move more freely and to be playful. We wanted the camera to be another character that had a life of its own and curiosity, which for me represents Tomas’ curiosity as a teenager. The camera are his eyes discovering things as he sees them, how he sees the city or perhaps how he sees the events they go through as scarier than they are. What we were trying to create was a certain subjectivity from Tomas’s point of view. He is an outsider that comes to Mexico City, and suddenly is immersed in the entrails of the city.

Aguilar: How difficult was it to include all these distinct thematic elements in one cohesive film: the protests, the road trip, the social commentary, among many others?

Alonso Ruizpalacios: Write the screenplay was a long process, rewriting, and rewriting again, and then cutting. Just like when I do theater, there are lots of ideas, but then we have to polish them. For this film the first version was about 160 pages, extremely long, and it took a lot of hard work to make it 100 pages and get rid off the other 60, which was very painful but necessary. Once we shot it, it became long again, the first cut was three hours. W had to trim and polish it a lot.

Aguilar: The singer, Epigmenio, is this almost mythical character that serves as catalyst for the story and as connecting point for the two brothers. Where did he come from?

Alonso Ruizpalacios: Epigmenio was inspired by one of Bob Dylan’s anecdotes about going to New York to meet his idol Woody Guthrie, a folk singer famous during the 40s and 50s. Dylan learned that Guthrie was agonizing in a Brooklyn hospital as he suffered from Huntington’s disease, so he decided to embark on a journey from Minnesota to NYC by hitchhiking and by train. He wanted to get to that hospital to meet woody before he died. This idea of a young boy traveling across the country to meet his idol always interested me, but I knew that I would never be able to buy the rights for that story, so I created my own with Epigmenio. It was important to me that the encounter was disappointing because these encounters are usually that way. One creates a dialogue with the artwork not with the person behind it.

Aguilar: Coming from a theater background, what was your approach with the actors for this project?

Alonso Ruizpalacios: I worked a lot with the actors, there were a lot of rehearsals, particularly with Tenoch and Sebastian, who plays Tomas. The work we did was aimed for them to establish a brotherly relationship. We would take Sebastian to play basketball or billiards with us so that they would spend a lot of time together. I told Tenoch he had to really become his brother, when we started shooting there was a lot of affection between them. Then I asked Tenoch to treat him badly, just like older brothers do sometimes. What you are looking for when working with actors are moments of truth, authenticity, and situations that involve risk.

Aguilar: Shooting in a car in one of the most complex cities in the world, how much of a challenge was it?

Alonso Ruizpalacios: It was very complicated. Shooting in a car is very uncomfortable, especially in such a small car. It wasn’t pleasant, but I think that was part of the idea. Shooting on digital also allowed us to shoot a few things on the fly. We could turn on the camera somewhere and find something great to shoot. Mexico City is that way, there are unexpected things happening all the time. The film is full of lucky moments.

There's no reverie Alonso Ruizpalacios's Güeros can't shatter, no presumed truth it can't complicate, no expectation of closure it won't dash. Set in Mexico City during 1999's 292-day student strike at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, the film is about — if any one thing — proximity to decisiveness, about the young people who don't think they are the answer to the problems facing their world but are eager to sleep with the ones who do. Its three male leads — two college-aged men, Federico (Tenoch Huerta) and Santos (Leonardo Ortizgris), plus Federico's troublemaking adolescent brother Tomás (Sebastián Aguirre), sent to them for a lesson in maturity — spend most of the film without a mission, drivin...

Gueros, the debut film from director Alonso Ruiz Palacios, begins on a high note: a stylish, energetic opening detailing the inevitable collision between a woman carrying her baby on a stroller and a badly timed water balloon. This little act of delinquency is what lands young Tomás (Sebastián Aguirre) in Mexico City, under the care of older brother Sombra (Tenoch Huerta), who lounges around his apartment waiting for a students' strike to finish so he can complete his thesis.Joined by Sombra's equally slacker pal Santos (Leonardo Ortizgris), and later a radio DJ/love interest named Ana (Ilse Salas), the brothers take off in search of a reclusive, near-mythical former rock star named Epigmenio Cruz, a favorite of their late father, whose biggest claim to fame is...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Much like the counter-movement it depicts, Alonso Ruizpalacios’ Güeros is built upon a series of elements that slyly double back on one another. Smartphones in 1999, remnants of behind the scenes footage to break the third wall, a road trip through town, and handheld camerawork to counteract otherwise formal rigor all comprise this tale of three young men in the midst of a Mexico City National University upheaval. Troublemaker Tomás (Sebastián Aguirre) is sent South by his mother to live with his dissident, often lackadaisical brother Sombra (Tenoch Huerta) and his best friend Santos (Leonardo Ortizgris). Wasting the days away in their concrete compound, the three become […]...

Much like the counter-movement it depicts, Alonso Ruizpalacios’ Güeros is built upon a series of elements that slyly double back on one another. Smartphones in 1999, remnants of behind the scenes footage to break the third wall, a road trip through town, and handheld camerawork to counteract otherwise formal rigor all comprise this tale of three young men in the midst of a Mexico City National University upheaval. Troublemaker Tomás (Sebastián Aguirre) is sent South by his mother to live with his dissident, often lackadaisical brother Sombra (Tenoch Huerta) and his best friend Santos (Leonardo Ortizgris). Wasting the days away in their concrete compound, the three become […]...

Nancy Buirski [pictured], Valeria Golino and Hernán Musaluppi to decide on the Best First Feature Award; 18 films are in contention.

Berlinale has unveiled the three-person jury for its Best First Feature Award.

Us director and producer Nancy Buirski, Italian actress and director Valeria Golino and Argentinian producer Hernán Musaluppi will decide the award, with the winner announced at the official award ceremony in the Berlinale Palast on Feb 15.

The award comes with a €50,000 prize, donated by the Gwff, and will be split between the producer and director of the winning film, while the director will also be awarded with a high-quality viewfinder.

A total of 18 directorial debuts have been nominated by the heads of the Competition, Panorama, Forum, Generation and Perspektive Deutsches Kino section.

They are:

Competition

´71 - United Kingdom

By Yann Demange

With Jack O’Connell, Sean Harris, Richard Dormer

Historia del miedo (History of Fear) – Argentina / Uruguay / Germany / France

By Benjamin Naishtat

With Jonathan Da Rosa, [link...