The Guadalajara International Film Festival (FICG), now in its 41st edition, announces the official selection of films competing for the Mezcal Award, which is dedicated to Mexican feature-length fiction films and documentaries that reflect the diversity of perspectives, themes, and styles in contemporary Mexican cinema.
Considered one of the festival’s most iconic sections, the Mezcal Award recognizes the creativity and talent of Mexican filmmakers, while introducing audiences to notable films from the Mexican film scene.
The Mezcal Award for Best Mexican Film includes a Mayahuel statuette and $500,000 (Mexican pesos), awarded to the majority production company. Meanwhile, the film that wins the Audience Award receives a Mayahuel statuette and $100,000 (Mexican pesos) for the director. In the categories of Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Performance, a Mayahuel statuette is awarded.
DOCUMENTARY
The Same Blood (2025)
Ángel Ricardo Linares Colmenares
Mexico
Following her sister’s murder, Norma Mesino took the helm of the Southern Sierra Peasants’ Organization, a group that has been fighting for 30 years for the human rights of the peasants living in one of Mexico’s poorest and most violent regions. She carries on her shoulders the weight of a surname that has been synonymous with struggle and resistance—marked by the Aguas Blancas massacre, imprisonments, murders, and disappearances—while in her daily life she continues an almost invisible struggle to overcome the atmosphere of hostility and impunity that surrounds her and thus fulfill what seems to be her manifest destiny.
Mickey (2026)
Dano García
Mexico
Mickey has spent the last ten years exploring his transition process within the conservative context of Sinaloa, Mexico. Through digital archives, artistic reenactments, and deeply personal encounters, the film shifts between tenderness and rage, transforming memory into an act of freedom. An exploration of self-perception and a non-punitive confrontation with the past.
Our body is a star that is expanding (2025)
Semillites Hernández Velasco, Tania Hernández Velasco
Mexico
Semillites and Tania, two queer siblings bound by a powerful friendship, traverse the dark terrain of their own bodies—lands they once rejected. They journey through landscapes of skin, dreams, and viscera, venturing into places that resonate with the memory of their ancestors, and along the way, they encounter a constellation of flowers, grasshoppers, and fossils. Through collage, animation, manifesto, dance, and intimacy, the film moves across the scales of the body and territory, reimagining identity beyond Mexico’s colonial narratives.
Dear Fatima (2026)
Lorena Gutiérrez Rangel, Su Kim, Jesús Quintana Vega, Rodrigo Reyes, Dawn Valadez
Mexico | United States
A decade after her 12-year-old daughter Fátima was murdered in a brutal femicide, Lorena Gutiérrez stands outside the National Palace to demand an audience with Mexico’s first female president. Directed collectively under Lorena’s leadership, this film is a visceral portrait that blends personal grief with political resistance, as experienced in a country where the United Nations estimates that 10 women and girls are murdered every day.
FICTION
Celestino (2025)
Hans Bryssinck
Belgium | Mexico
During a sabbatical in Mexico, Belgian journalist Iván follows in the footsteps of the enigmatic writer Celestino Pérez. Upon arriving in the town where Pérez is said to live, he is nowhere to be found. The writer’s family takes Iván in, and, fascinated by the strange daily life of the household, he finds himself immersed in an unexpected confinement. As the days go by, his experiences seem to dissolve into the imagined portrait of Celestino.
City of the Dead (2024)
Jose Manuel Cravioto
Mexico
Between earthquakes, accidents, and crimes, Enrique has been photographing thousands of dead bodies since childhood, inspired by police and detective films. When a corpse turns up inside a trunk, Enrique finds himself drawn into the investigation led by a secret service agent who is pursuing a serial killer, setting in motion an unorthodox investigation.
What they're leaving us (2026)
Issa García Ascot
Mexico
Sara, a 30-year-old molecular biologist, must leave her life in the city behind to travel to the jungle to retrieve a file from a research center. While there, she takes on the mission of finding an owl believed to be extinct. In the process, she will uncover events from her past that she had forgotten and parts of herself she didn’t know existed, and following that revelation, the freedom she longed for but never thought possible.
Goose (2025)
Karla Badillo
Mexico | Argentina
Rafaela is a young nun who belongs to a struggling, nearly extinct congregation. For some time now, a recurring, incomplete dream has been haunting her. Eventually, she is sent to a nearby town in search of the new archbishop. Along the way, she will have extraordinary encounters that will either move her forward or set her back on her journey.
Wanted (2026)
Kenya Márquez
Mexico
René, a lonely, insecure, and rebellious teenager, flees from her suffocating parents, overwhelmed by a sea of doubts. This leads her on a 2,000-kilometer journey to Ciudad Juárez, where she senses something calling to her—a journey that will also prove to be a revealing inner journey.
My name is Mario (2026)
Sharon Kleinberg
Mexico
Mario is a transgender taxi driver who becomes pregnant. He now has the chance to fulfill his dream of becoming a father, but this brings him face to face with his own expectations regarding his masculinity. Before exposing himself to a sexist and prejudiced society, he must first confront himself.
The Son-in-Law (2026)
Gerardo Naranjo González
Mexico
José Sánchez has a memorable mustache, a silver tongue, and boundless ambition. After a string of business setbacks, fate transforms him into El Serpiente, a feared political operator. Staying at the top requires one final deal—the most dangerous of all—and this time, his smooth talk might not be enough.
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