Cinépolis, the leading theatrical exhibition company in Mexico and Latin America, and the Sundance Institute, the nonprofit organization behind the world-famous Sundance Film Festival whose year-round work is dedicated to the discovery and development of independent artists and audiences, announced the 12 feature films and the Mexican short film program that will comprise the inaugural program of the Sundance Film Festival CDMX 2024. The showcase will take place from April 25th to 28th at Cinépolis Diana and Cinépolis VIP Miyana, along with projections at Cinépolis VIP Perisur, Cinépolis VIP Mitikah and Cinépolis VIP Satélite. The Festival’s first edition in Mexico City will bring together audiences who will be a part of Sundance’s legacy and Cinépolis’s mission of empowering new stories and innovative independent artists.
Among the feature films that will be presented during Sundance Film Festival CDMX 2024 are “In The Summers,” the winner of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Dramatic Competition, and “Daughters,” the winner of the Audience Award: U.S. Documentary and Festival Favorite Award”.” Other films that will be presented during the festival include the crowd-pleasers “Your Monster” and “Love Lies Bleeding””.” There will also be a special screening of the 2024 Oscar winner for Best Documentary Feature: “20 Days in Mariupol”. The opening night film will be the documentary “Frida”, directed by Carla Gutiérrez, who was awarded the 2024 Sundance Film Festival Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award for U.S. Documentary.
A program of Mexican short films that have been presented over the years at Sundance Film Festival has been curated by the Sundance Programming team and will be showcased during the festival. The program is comprised of six titles, including “Al Motociclista no le Cabe la Felicidad en su Traje” (Fiction), “La Odisea Espeleológica de Sócrates” (Animation), “Chica de Fábrica” (Drama), among others.
“The selection of feature films we’ve invited to this first Sundance Film Festival CDMX is a bold, exciting group of discoveries from the Sundance Film Festival,” commented Eugene Hernandez, Director, Sundance Film Festival and Public Programming. “We know that Mexico City audiences will be moved, inspired, and entertained by the originality and creativity coming from a visionary group of new filmmakers. We can’t wait to gather together in Cinepolis cinemas next month to celebrate independent cinema – we hope to see you there!”
“The Sundance Film Festival CDMX 2024 goes beyond a showcase of films; it is a gathering point for creativity, innovation, and exploration in the world of independent cinema,” commented Alejandro Ramírez, Cinépolis CEO. “We are thrilled to bring this celebration of cinema to Mexico City and to provide a platform for filmmakers and audiences to engage in meaningful conversations about the power of film to inspire, educate, and transform.”
This program is set to be a can’t-miss event for cinema lovers and the filmmaking community. Tickets for the “Sundance Film Festival CDMX 2024” will be available starting on April 15th through the Cinépolis official website www.cinepolis.com/sundance-cdmx and its app, as well as at the box offices of Cinépolis Diana and Cinépolis VIP Miyana. Tickets are priced at $105 MXN for traditional screenings and $210 MXN for VIP screenings. Be sure to purchase tickets in advance, as high demand is expected.
Below is the complete program curated by the programming team of the Sundance Film Festival.
DOCUMENTARY FEATURES
“Agent of Happiness” / Bhutan (Director and Producer: Arun Bhattarai, Director: Dorottya Zurbó, Producers: Noémi Veronika Szakonyi, Máté Artur Vincze) – How can you measure happiness? The country of Bhutan invented Gross National Happiness to do just that, and Amber is one of the agents who travels door to door to meet people and measure how happy they really are. He is still living with his elderly mother at the age of 40 but is nevertheless a hopeless romantic who dreams of finding love: a happiness agent who is in search of his own happiness. We embark with Amber on a cross-country road trip meeting citizens from all walks of life, reminding us of the fragility and beauty of our own happiness. No matter where we live.
“Daughters” / United States (Directors: Angela Patton y Natalie Rae, Producers: Lisa Mazzotta, Justin Benoliel, Mindy Goldberg, Sam Bisbee, Kathryn Everett, Laura Choi Raycroft) – Four young girls prepare for a special Daddy Daughter Dance with their incarcerated fathers, as part of a unique fatherhood program in a Washington, D.C jail. A moving lesson in empathy and forgiveness, Daughters is a result of an eight-year documentary journey that filmmaker Natalie Rae and Angela Patton, an activist advocating for “at-promise” girls, embarked upon.
“Frida” / United States (Director: Carla Gutiérrez, Producers: Katia Maguire, Sara Bernstein, Justin Wilkes, Loren Hammonds, Alexandra Johnes) – An intimately raw and magical journey through the life, mind, and heart of iconic artist Frida Kahlo, FRIDA is told through her own words for the very first time, drawn from her famed illustrated diary, revealing letters, essays, and candid print interviews — and brought vividly to life by lyrical animation inspired by her unforgettable artwork.
“Going Varsity in Mariachi” / United States (Directors: Alejandra Vasquez & Sam Osborn, Producers: James Lawler,Luis A. Miranda, Jr., Julia Pontecorvo) – Special Screening. In a South Texas high school auditorium, trumpets ring out, thick guitarrón strings thrum, and violin bow hairs snap and swing wildly through the air. This is the world of competitive scholastic mariachi. This energetic documentary captures the highs and lows of Edinburg North High School’s Mariachi Oro as a green team strives for state championship. With tough love, finely tuned empathy, and a fiery passion for the music, Coach Abel Acuña guides the varsity band through a steep competition season and a fraught year in their adolescent lives. Team captains Abby, Marlena, and Bella prove the value of the skills taught in the band room as they navigate life’s challenges on and off the stage with grace, immutable work ethic, and total charm.
“IGUALADA” / Colombia (Director: Juan Mejía Botero, Producers: Juan E. Yepes, Daniela Alatorre, Sonia Serna) – In one of Latin America’s most unequal countries, Francia Márquez, a Black Colombian rural activist, challenges the status quo with a presidential campaign that reappropriates the derogatory term “Igualada” — someone who acts as if they deserve rights that supposedly don’t correspond to them — and inspires a nation to dream.
“Love Machina” / United States (Director and Producer: Peter Sillen, Producer: Brendan Doyle) – Futurists Martine and Bina Rothblatt commission an advanced humanoid AI named Bina48 to transfer Bina’s consciousness from a human to a robot in an attempt to continue their once-in-a-galaxy love affair for the rest of time. “Love Machina” is where futurism meets love, where love meets humanity, where humanity meets AI.
“Skywalkers: A Love Story” / United States (Director, Screenwriter and Producer: Jeff Zimbalist, Producers: Maria Bukhonina, Tamir Ardon, Chris Smith, Nick Spicer) – To save their career and relationship, a daredevil couple journey across the globe to climb the world’s last super skyscraper and perform a bold acrobatic stunt on the spire. This immersive, vertiginous nail-biter takes audiences nearly 2,230 feet up in the sky. From carefully staking out their target and selecting an ingenious time to make their attempt, to evading security and risking their freedom — not to mention their lives — the Russian rooftoppers bring the viewer along for a wild and breathtaking ride.
“20 Days in Mariupol” / Ukraine (Director, Writer, Producer, Cinematographer: Mstyslav Chernov, Producers: Vasilisa Stepanenko, Evgeniy Maloletka, Michelle Mizner, Raney Aronson-Rath, Derl Mccrudden, Jordan Dykstra) – Special Screening. On the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a team of Ukrainian journalists enter the strategic eastern port city of Mariupol. During the subsequent siege and assault, as bombs fall, inhabitants flee, and access to electricity, food, water, and medicine are severed, the team — the only international journalists left — struggles to cover the war atrocities and to transmit their footage out. Eventually surrounded by Russian soldiers, they shelter in a hospital, unsure of how they’ll escape. Ukrainian filmmaker and journalist Mstyslav Chernov offers a window into the practices of conflict zone reporters and an unflinching, anguishing account of the 20 days he and colleagues Evgeniy Maloletka and Vasilisa Stepanenko spent covering Mariupol. Their footage, widely disseminated through news media, not only documents the death and destruction, but directly refutes Russian misinformation. Seeing so much death, Chernov wonders how capturing any more could make a difference. But residents implore them to let the world bear witness.
FEATURE FILMS
“In The Summers” / United States (Director and Screenwriter: Alessandra Lacorazza, Producers: Alexander Dinelaris, Rob Quadrino, Fernando Rodriguez-Vila, Lynette Coll, Sergio Lira, Cristóbal Güell, Cast: René Pérez Joglar, Sasha Calle, Lío Mehiel, Leslie Grace, Emma Ramos, Sharlene Cruz) – In The Summers tells the story of sisters, Violeta, and Eva, who visit their loving but reckless father Vicente every summer. He creates a world of wonder but under the fun facade, he battles addiction which gradually erodes the magic, culminating in a devastating tragedy. Vicente tries to make up for the past, but wounds aren’t easily healed.
“Love Lies Bleeding” / United States (Director and Screenwriter: Rose Glass, Producers: Andrea Cornwell, Oliver Kassman, Cast: Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brian, Ed Harris, Dave Franco, Jena Malone, Anna Baryshnikov) – From director Rose Glass, comes a new and electrifying love story: Lou is a reclusive gym manager who falls hard for Jackie, an ambitious bodybuilder who’s heading to Las Vegas to pursue her dream. Their love soon leads to violence as they get pulled deep into the web of Lou’s criminal family.
“Malu” / Brazil (Director and Screenwriter: Pedro Freire, Producers: Tatiana Leite, Sabrina Garcia, Leo Ribeiro, Roberto Berliner, Cast: Yara de Novaes, Carol Duarte, Juliana Carneiro da Cunha, Átila Bee) – A mercurial, unemployed actress living with her conservative mother in a precarious house in a Rio de Janeiro slum — tries to deal with her strained relationship with her own adult daughter while surviving on memories of her glorious artistic past.
“Your Monster” / United States (Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: Caroline Lindy, Producers: Kayla Foster, Shannon Reilly, Melanie Donkers, Kira Carstensen, Cast: Melissa Barrera, Tommy Dewey, Meghann Fahy, Edmund Donovan, Kayla Foster) – Battling an illness and dumped by the love of her life, struggling actress Laura Franco returns to her childhood home to recover. To her horror, she discovers a monster living in her bedroom closet. Turns out he’s quite the charmer. Over time, they forge an unlikely connection as Monster helps Laura stand up to her narcissistic ex and fight for the lead role in his show that was promised to her. Laura and Monster’s relationship slowly grows into something more as she rediscovers her power and learns to unleash her long-suppressed rage.
MEXICAN SHORT FILMS PROGRAM
“Al Motociclista no le Cabe la Felicidad en su Traje” (Director: Gabriel Herrara, Cast: David Illiescas, Ángel Morales) – There he sits proudly on his beautiful motorbike which he would never loan to anyone. He is certain that he alone can explore the jungle. A playful re-enactment with reversed roles that takes aim at the hubris of the colonial conquerors.
“Chica de Fábrica” (Director: Selma Cervantes, Cast: Yalitza Aparicio, Mariana Villegas, Amorita Rasgado) – The short film tells the story of Inés, who works as a seamstress in an underground workshop where pregnancy tests are periodically administered. When she becomes pregnant, she fears that her condition will lead to her being fired and she does everything she can to keep it a secret.
“El Sueño Más Largo Que Recuerdo” (Director: Carlos Lenin, Cast: Paloma Petra, Humberto “El Lobo” Rubio, Morena González) – In the context of the war against drug trafficking, Tania is a young woman who struggles to move forward and considers leaving her town while dealing with the absence of her disappeared father.
“La Baláhna” (Director: Xóchitl Enríquez Mendoza, Cast: Emma Aguilar Malacara, Héctor Ortiz Valdovinos, Mayra Sérbulo) – Catalina submits to the tradition of her people, “La Baláhna,” to demonstrate her purity and worth as a woman to her beloved, but her body betrays her, and she fails to demonstrate her chastity. What future awaits Catalina in the face of a syncretic love that rejects her?
“La Odisea Espeleológica de Sócrates” (Director: Aria Covamonas, Cast: Manli Xiu) – A marxist-leninist-maoist revision of the Allegory of the Cave, filled with talking animals who shall be late and bourgeois queens who would like to see you without head, exactly as Plato intended.
“Viaje de Negocios” (Director: Gerardo Coello Escalante, Cast: Rodrigo Mota, Pablo Torres, Gerardo Saldaña, Lila Urbina) – Daniel arrives at school wearing brand-new sneakers from America, gifted to him by his father. When he sees another boy wearing the same sneakers, he begins to suspect that their shoes are the key to a terrible secret.
About Cinépolis
Cinépolis is a Mexican company founded in Morelia, Michoacán, more than 50 years ago, which operates in 18 countries throughout America, Asia, and Europe. Cinépolis is the global industry leader in terms of ticket sales and attendance per auditorium, as well as the world’s 3rd largest movie theatre circuit and the most important outside the United States. Cinépolis is the world’s largest luxury cinema exhibitor and one of the cinema chains with the most laser projectors in the entire industry.
With 890 cinemas and 6,823 digital movie theaters in total, Cinépolis employs more than 32 thousand collaborators. Cinépolis has introduced innovative concepts to the exhibition industry, such as the first multiplexes (Multicinemas), the ?rst concept of a luxury cinema (Cinépolis VIP), the partnership with IMAX turned into Cinépolis IMAX, Macro XE screens, 4DX screens, and Sala Junior® screen.
Cinépolis remains at the forefront and has connected with different audiences through its brands Cinépolis +QUE CINE, Cinépolis Distribución, and Sala de Arte Cinépolis. It has also contributed to Mexican society through the Cinépolis Foundation with its programs “Del Amor Nace la Vista,” “Ruta Cinépolis” and “Vamos Todos a Cinépolis.”
Sundance Institute
As a champion and curator of independent stories, the nonprofit Sundance Institute provides and preserves the space for artists across storytelling media to create and thrive. Founded in 1981 by Robert Redford, the Institute’s signature labs, granting, and mentorship programs, dedicated to developing new work, take place throughout the year in the U.S. and internationally. Sundance Collab, a digital community platform, brings a global cohort of working artists together to learn from Sundance Advisors and connect with each other in a creative space, developing and sharing works in progress. The Sundance Film Festival and other public programs connect audiences and artists to ignite new ideas, discover original voices, and build a community dedicated to independent storytelling. Through the Sundance Institute artist programs, we have supported such projects as “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” “The Big Sick,” “Bottle Rocket,” “Boys Don’t Cry,” “Boys State,” “Call Me By Your Name,” “Clemency,” “CODA,” “Drunktown’s Finest,” “The Farewell,” “Fire of Love,” “Flee,” “The Forty-Year-Old Version,” “Fruitvale Station,” “Get Out,” “Half Nelson,” “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” “Hereditary,” “Honeyland,” “The Infiltrators,” “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” “Little Woods,” “Love & Basketball,” “Me and You and Everyone We Know,” “Mudbound,” “Nanny,” “Navalny,” “O.J.: Made in America,” “One Child Nation,” “Pariah,” “Raising Victor Vargas,” “Requiem for a Dream,” “Reservoir Dogs,” “RBG,” “Sin Nombre,” “Sorry to Bother You,” “The Souvenir,” “Strong Island,” “Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised),” “Swiss Army Man,” “Sydney,” “A Thousand and One,” “Top of the Lake,” “Walking and Talking,” “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,”and “Zola.” Through year-round artist programs, the Institute also nurtured the early careers of artists such Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, Gregg Araki, Darren Aronofsky, Lisa Cholodenko, Ryan Coogler, Nia DaCosta, The Daniels, David Gordon Green, Miranda July, James Mangold, John Cameron Mitchell, Kimberly Peirce, Boots Riley, Ira Sachs, Quentin Tarantino, Taika Waititi, Lulu Wang, and Chloé Zhao.
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