{"id":2654,"date":"2026-04-17T13:57:01","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T13:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/?p=2654"},"modified":"2026-04-17T13:57:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T13:57:01","slug":"james-schamus-netflix-larrain-brothers-j-m-cravioto-ficg-1236724425","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/?p=2654","title":{"rendered":"James Schamus, Netflix, ‘Roma’ Producer\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tNetflix<\/a> movie \u201cThe Son-In-Law,\u201d from James Schamus<\/a> and the Larra\u00edn brothers heads a talent-packed 2026 Guadalajara Fest Mexico Mezcal Competition squarely focused on urgent social issues plaguing Mexico and beyond.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI see a stronger, more unapologetic focus on social cinema than in previous years,\u201d Estrella Araiza, director of the Guadalajara Film Festival<\/a> (FICG<\/a>) has told Variety<\/em>. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHelmed by \u201cMiss Bala\u201d director Gerardo Naranjo, \u201cThe Son-in-Law\u201d is joined by other potential Mezcal standouts such as \u201cOca\u201d from \u201cRoma\u201d producer Pimienta Films<\/a> and the latest movies from maverick J.M. Cravioto<\/a> and auteur Kenya M\u00e1rquez.<\/p>\n

\n\tCo-written and produced by Schamus, teaming for production with the Mexico office of Pablo and Juan de Dios Larra\u00edn\u2019s Fabula, \u201cThe Son-in-Law\u201d world premieres at Guadalajara on April 18, before dropping on Netflix May 1. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn it, the characters\u2019 \u201cgreat Mexican dream\u201d \u2013 of making it at any cost \u2013 becomes \u201ca rather insane, absurd tragicomedy,\u201d said Schamus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOca,\u201d from the Nicolas Celis-led Pimienta Films, also behind Alfonso Cuar\u00f3n\u2019s \u201cRoma,\u201d Tatiana Huezo\u2019s \u201cPrayers for the Stolen\u201d and Amat Escalante\u2019s \u201cLost in the Night,\u201d is \u201cfrom the absurd, a biting reflection on faith in a fractured society,\u201d producer Mar\u00eda Jos\u00e9 C\u00f3rdova tells Variety. <\/em>It won the Zonacine Audience Award at Spain\u2019s M\u00e1laga Festival this March.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tA fiction tribute to legendary crime photographer Enrique Metinides, Mezcal entry \u201cCity of the Dead\u201d reps another potentially distinctive film from Cravioto (\u201cA Deadly Invitation,\u201d \u201cWheels, Weed & Rock n\u2019 Roll\u201d), also a director on episodes in \u201cBerlin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMezcal contender \u201cMissing\u201d marks the fourth feature from Kenya M\u00e1rquez, winner of the First Feature Award at the 2012 Miami Festival with \u201cFecha de Caducidad.\u201d It is co-written with distinguished Argentine filmmaker Celina Murga, director most recently of the Martin Scorsese-exec produced infidelity thriller \u201cThe Freshly Cut Grass.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tGuadalajara\u2019s Mezcal Mexico Competition promises breakouts, however, given other titles such as \u201cCelestino\u201d and nearly all the doc-features are some kind of directorial debut.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tNotable among doc features are two which chart personal and collective civic reaction to two impossibly forgettable cases of feminicide in a country where, according to the United Nations, cited by the makers of \u201cQuerida F\u00e1tima,\u201d 10 women or girls are murdered every day.<\/p>\n

\n\tDoc feature \u201cThe Same Blood,\u201d for instance, aims at creating solid protection mechanisms for human rights defenders in Mexico. A social impact strategy will kick off with a May 28 event in Chilpancingo, attended by all Guerrero state deputies.<\/p>\n

\n\tA closer look at titles:<\/p>\n

\n\tFiction Features<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cCelestino,\u201d<\/strong> (Hans Bryssinck, SPIN, Belgium, Mexico)<\/p>\n

\n\tIv\u00e1n, a Belgium journalist, tries to track down elusive writer C\u00e9lestino P\u00e9rez, who is nowhere to be found in the town where he\u2019s said to live. But his family takes Iv\u00e1n in as his experiences begin to dissolve into the imagined portrait of Celestino. \u201cRather than constructing a mystery to be solved, I sought to allow multiple interpretations and maintain uncertainty until after the film ends,\u201d says Bryssinck (\u201cWilson y Los M\u00e1s Elegantes\u201d).\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Celestino\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\t\u201cCity of the Dead,\u201d <\/strong>(\u201cCiudad de los Muertos,\u201d J.M. Cravioto, Peninsula Films & Entertainment, Cinemex Distribuci\u00f3n, Alebrije Producciones, M\u00e9xico)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen a body is found in a suitcase, Enrique, a renowned forensic photographer, finds himself caught up in a secret agent\u2019s hunt for a serial killer. Blending police and detective movies with film noir, \u201cmy intention was to create a \u2018parapsychological\u2019 thriller featuring silver nitrate ghosts as a heartfelt tribute to photography, 20th-century urban chroniclers and Mexican cinema,\u201d Cravioto tells Variety<\/em>. Produced by Eduardo D\u00edaz Casanova\u2019s Pen\u00ednsula, behind Netflix titles \u201cNo One Saw Us Leave\u201d and \u201cThe Guardian of the Monarchs.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\u2018City of the Dead\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEduardo Cisneros<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\t\u201cMissing,\u201d<\/strong> (Kenya M\u00e1rquez, Puerco Rosa Producciones, Rubicon Productions, Mexico)<\/p>\n

\n\tRen\u00e9, a lonely, insecure, and rebellious teenager, tries to flee her suffocating parents and multiple doubts making a 1,200-mile journey to Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez, where she senses something calling her. It will prove a revelatory inner journey. \u201cAn exploration of a search on different levels: Sexual identity, the sense of family and a collapsed country, made from the point of view of an adolescent,\u201d M\u00e1rquez tells Variety<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cOca,\u201d<\/strong> (Karla Badillo, Pimienta Films, Pina Films, Las Jaras)
The feature debut as a director of producer Badillo, a production partner on Lisandro Alonso\u2019s \u201cEureka.\u201d Described as a satirical and spiritual film, it turns on Rafaela, a young nun in an almost extinct order dispatched to the local village to find the new archbishop. Along the way, she experiences extraordinary encounters which make her advance or retreat on her path, \u201cwealth and poverty, corruption and duty and the human and the divine precisely colliding,\u201d says producer C\u00f3rdova.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Oca\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Rest is Memory,\u201d<\/strong> (\u201cLo que nos van dejando,\u201d Issa Garc\u00eda Ascot, Cortes Finos, Mexico)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTravelling to the jungle to a research center, Sara, 30, uncovers forgotten events from her past \u201cand parts of herself she never knew, leading to a revelation \u2014 and the freedom she longed for but never thought possible.\u201d \u201cAn attempt to materialize a series of events and sensations that changed my life and the way I inhabit it,\u201d says Garc\u00eda Ascot. From Cortes Finos, founded in 2016 by editor Yibr\u00e1n Asuad (\u201cA Cop Movie,\u201d \u201cLa Cocina\u201d).<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Son-In-Law,\u201d<\/strong> (Gerardo Naranjo, Netflix, F\u00e1bula)<\/p>\n

\n\tJos\u00e9 S\u00e1nchez, sporting a magnificent touche, unthinking ambition and the gift of the gab, is transformed by chance into El Serpiente, a ruthless political strategist.\u201d \u201cThe Son-in-Law\u201d \u201cexplores betrayal, portraying it as a widespread practice in this country\u201d and a \u201cprovocation, inviting us to examine a reality that is equally ridiculous and contradictory,\u201d Naranjo said. \u201cOnly through the experience of watching it will its full meaning be revealed,\u201d promised Netflix Content VP Francisco Ramos.<\/p>\n

\n\tDoc-Features<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Kid in the Photo. Carlos Saura,\u201d (Anna Saura, Atrece Creaciones, Gonita Filmaci\u00f3n, Mostra Cinema)<\/p>\n

\n\tDaughter Anna Saura delivers an intimate, knowing and humor-sluiced portrait of what made great Spanish director Carlos Saura tick, his lifelong horrors and how he was with family and friends, weaving often playful informal interview and occasional archive footage simply catching Saura at work at his mountain home. \u201cA close-up, emotional work where I invite the spectator t0 discover his most human side,\u201d Anna Saura tells Variety<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tCarlos Saura \/ The Kid in the Photo<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\t\u201cMickey,\u201d<\/strong> (Dano Garc\u00eda, Venado Films, Phototaxia Pictures, Estudio Errante, Mexico)<\/p>\n

\n\tA 2026 SXSW Visions Audience Award winner, shot over 10 years braiding interview, play and performance, with animation and green screen scenes as Mickey Cundapi, a trans woman in died-in-the-wool Sinaloa, remembers the last 10 years of her life. Trans films allow the \u201cpossibility of telling a non-punitive story, full of humor and resilience,\u201d says Garc\u00eda. From Venado, also behind \u201cLos reyes del pueblo que no existe,\u201d a 2015\u00a0 SXSW Global Audience Award winner.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Mickey\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\t\u201cQuerida F\u00e1tima,\u201d<\/strong> (Lorena Guti\u00e9rrez Rangel, Su Kim, Jes\u00fas Quintana Vega, Rodrigo Reyes, Dawn Valadez, Mexico, U.S.)<\/p>\n

\n\tA decade after the brutal murder of her daughter F\u00e1tima at the age of 12, mother Lorena Guti\u00e9rrez travels to the National Palace, demanding an audience with Mexico\u2019s first woman president, Claudia Sheinbaum. Directed by a collective led by Guti\u00e9rrez and described as a \u201cvisceral portrait combing personal pain and political resistance.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOur Body Is an Expanding Star,\u201d <\/strong>(Tania Hern\u00e1ndez Velasco, Semillites Hern\u00e1ndez Velasco, Autonauta, Una Hoja Cae, Mexico)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBowing at the IDFA Envision Competition, in the film Mexican queer siblings Semillites and Tania film their bodies with extreme close-ups, animations, projections or razor-sharp nature photography, pores becoming desert landscapes, skin cells salt flats, an IDFA description runs. \u201cA collaborative journey, artistic and emotional, fed by powerful trans and queer education , transforming sequence by sequence and sustained by the tenderness between the siblings and their family,\u201d producer Viana Gonz\u00e1lez told Variety<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Our Body Is an Expanding Star\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Same Blood,\u201d <\/strong>(\u201cLa misma sangre,\u201d Angel Linares, Mexico)<\/p>\n

\n\tFeatured in Linares\u2019 first doc short, Roc\u00edo Mesino was assassinated one day before its premiere. Here, sister Norma heads a historic peasant organization in southern Mexico that\u00a0 confronts violence and impunity. Filming was an \u201cincredibly difficult process, in which our lives were at risk on several occasions. However, thanks to a strong capacity to develop protocols, maintain clear communication with different stakeholders and the support of human rights organizations, we were able to move forward,\u201d says Linares.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSoy Mario,\u201d <\/strong>Sharon Kleinberg,\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMario, a trans taxi driver, becomes pregnant. He\u2019s delighted at becoming a father but is forced, before facing prejudices of society at large, to confront his sense of his own masculine identity. The first doc-feature from Kleinberg, a best fiction short film award winner for her 2022 directorial debut \u201cYour Way My Way\u201d (2022) at New York\u2019s International Films Infest Festival.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Netflix movie \u201cThe Son-In-Law,\u201d from James Schamus and the Larra\u00edn brothers heads a talent-packed 2026 Guadalajara Fest Mexico Mezcal Competition squarely focused on urgent social issues plaguing Mexico and beyond. \u201cI see a stronger, more unapologetic focus on social cinema than in previous years,\u201d Estrella Araiza, director of the Guadalajara Film Festival (FICG) has told<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[405,1335,164,1336,1337,166,1338,3,542,167,62,168,1339],"tags":[1330,1331,1332,161,1333,162,163,1334],"class_list":["post-2654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-ficg","category-global","category-guadalajara-film-festival","category-j-m-cravioto","category-james-schamus","category-kenya-marquez","category-lifestyle","category-markets-festivals","category-netflix","category-news","category-pablo-larrain","category-pimienta-films","tag-ficg","tag-guadalajara-film-festival","tag-j-m-cravioto","tag-james-schamus","tag-kenya-marquez","tag-netflix","tag-pablo-larrain","tag-pimienta-films"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}