Here's How Our #Macabro2022 Went

From August 17 to 28, 2022, Macabro celebrated its twenty-first edition as the first and largest genre film festival in Mexico, as well as one of the most important of its kind in Latin America. The festival was conceived as a showcase for independent contemporary horror cinema, as well as for rescuing and reappraising classic and cult film; for driving the development of Mexican and Latin American genre filmmaking, historical review, and support for emerging talent, with a programming model that has served as a foundation and set the standard for horror and fantasy film exhibition in Mexico.

Over 20 years it has established itself as one of the most respected festivals on the circuit in Mexico and Latin America. International media, such as Movie Maker Magazine, have included it three times (2018, 2019, and 2021) on their list of the world's most important genre festivals. The horror-focused site Dread Central did so in 2021 and 2022.

The festival has been based in Mexico City since its founding in 2002, where it has focused on building audiences for the genre and its various expressions, creating a space to share experiences and common interests. This year's programme was made up of more than 40 films—32 of them premieres—representative of contemporary horror cinema from 23 countries, with more than 20 national and international guests in attendance. Over eleven days of the capital's summer, across more than twenty venues, Macabro delivered an inclusive celebration of horror cinema involving specialized and cinephile audiences, media outlets, the film community, Q&A sessions with guests, master classes, screenings for vulnerable audiences, workshops, music, retrospectives, tributes, parties, music, and tourism promotion.

Here you can see the full programme for Macabro XXI (2022): https://macabro.mx/2022/catalogo/

LIST OF WINNERS

MACABRO COVEN

MACABRO COVEN POST-PRODUCTION AWARD:

Delusión by Mónica Ocampo

MACABRO COVEN CO-PRODUCTION AWARD:

El inquilino by Samantha Gómez

INTERNATIONAL HORROR SHORT FILM COMPETITION

BEST INTERNATIONAL HORROR SHORT FILM:

La luz | Dir. Iago de Soto | Spain

HONORABLE MENTION, INTERNATIONAL HORROR SHORT FILM:

Dead North | Dir. Fabrizio Livigni | Italy

ANIMATED HORROR SHORT FILM COMPETITION

BEST ANIMATED HORROR SHORT FILM:

Tío | Dir. Juan José Medina | Mexico

HONORABLE MENTION, ANIMATED HORROR SHORT FILM:

Buzzkill | Dir. Peter Ahem | U.S.

MEXICAN HORROR SHORT FILM COMPETITION

BEST MEXICAN HORROR SHORT FILM:

Unheimlich | Dir. Fabio Colonna

IBERO-AMERICAN HORROR FEATURE FILM COMPETITION

BEST FILM:

Guardado, hermano | Dir. Jorge Iván Sanders | Mexico

BEST DIRECTION:

Sebastián Perillo for Las noches son de los monstruos, Argentina

DARK FANTASY, THRILLER, AND SCI-FI FEATURE FILM COMPETITION

MACABRO AWARD FOR BEST FEATURE FILM:

Sujeito Oculto | Dir. Léo Falcão | Brazil

HONORABLE MENTION FOR BEST FEATURE FILM:

God’s Petting You | Dir. Jamie Patterson | U.S.

BEST DIRECTION:

Chi Zhang for Annular Eclipse, China

INTERNATIONAL HORROR FEATURE FILM COMPETITION

BEST FILM:

The Family | Dir. Dan Slater | Canada

BEST DIRECTION:

Nickson Fong for Bashira, U.S.

HONORABLE MENTION FOR BEST DIRECTION:

Charlotte Colbert for She Will, U.S.

AUDIENCE AWARD

El ojo y el muro | Dir. Javier del Cid | Guatemala

SPECIAL ACTIVITIES

“Robots, aliens y luchadores. Ciencia ficción y Cine B en México” gave its name to this poster and lobby card exhibition of 10 titles representative of that cinematic hybrid that blended monsters, horror film iconography, science fiction, thriller and espionage with lucha libre. These films, considered B movies for having been made on shoestring budgets, became box-office landmarks from the 1950s through the late 1970s.

The common thread running through all these genres is precisely the presence of lucha libre's leading figures: el Santo, Blue Demon, Mil Máscaras, and Tinieblas, who in this universe 一only possible on celluloid一, fought equally against robots, Martians, monsters, vampires, zombies, and mad scientists. Wrestling-ring bouts are a must.

As researcher Orlando Jiménez notes in his book Terror del rudo (Samsara-Macabro FICH, 2015), lucha-libre cinema “is the product of a historical process that consolidated it as such; it is made up of a vast body of films with shared characteristics that managed to generate writing guidelines for their production, in addition to having built its own aesthetic, which in turn triggered a whole series of cultural phenomena.”

One of these phenomena is undoubtedly its blend, especially with science fiction, through characters, universes, and stories that, although they became a repetitive and often absurd formula, delivered great box-office results and left their mark on popular culture not only in Mexico but in many other countries.

The exhibition was an initiative of Antonio Cortés, lead coordinator of the Museo Panteón de San Fernando, and is part of the activities of the twenty-first edition of Macabro FICH; curatorship was handled by Edna Campos Tenorio and Mario Valencia in collaboration with the archives of the Filmoteca UNAM and the Cineteca Nacional.

The exhibition opened on August 13, 2022 at the Museo Panteón de San Fernando at 5:00 p.m. and was accompanied by a talk on B movies of this period given by José Luis Ortega Torres and a concert by the surf band Los Morton Surfers.

1. Robots, aliens y luchadores conference by José Luis Ortega Torres. On the occasion of the exhibition “Robots, aliens y luchadores. Ciencia Ficción y Cine B en México” at the Museo Panteón de San Fernando, José Luis Ortega Torres will give a talk on B movies in Mexico from the 1950s through the late 1960s. Find the introductory text written by https://macabro.mx/2022/evento_especial/robots-aliens-y-luchadores-ciencia-ficcion-y-cine-b-en-mexico/

2. From Cinépolis to Netflix and from the Chopo to Cuevana In this talk we bring together two critic-collectors and cinephiles, Alberto Acuña Navarijo and Iván Farías, connoisseurs of film from the most “pure” to the most “populist,” to chat informally about changing film-consumption habits; from the cult object to the digital archive obtained through legal and illegal means, through experiences, anecdotes, places, and characters. A look at the present and the future with a touch of nostalgia, but above all, a journey through the paths of cinephile education.

3. Macabro and En la noche de los tiempos present: A Talk with Qais Pasha As a prelude to the Latin American premiere of Exégesis Lovecraft, director and screenwriter Qais Pasha will talk about his experience making a documentary centered on the life and work of the dreamer of Providence. Participants: Qais Pasha, Mauricio Matamoros Durán, and Claudia Ortiz

INDUSTRY AND TRAINING

First Macabro Factory industry dinner

This year, Macabro kicked off Macabro Factory's activities, its production and industry label, with a networking dinner among producers, filmmakers, and guests involved in the film industry, aimed at building networks and connections, as well as giving a boost to new projects in fantasy and horror genre filmmaking.

Acting Out Horror. A Talk with Declan Hannigan. Presented by Macabro Lab

Declan was born in Donegal, Ireland. He has been writing since he was a child. His film career began when he auditioned for John Sayles' The Secret of Roan Inish in 1993, and he has continued appearing since then in productions such as Moon Knight, The Martian, Atomic Blonde, The Witcher, and The Terror. Declan has written and directed for the screen, winning the Madrid Film Festival in 2008 with his short film Csapás. He has written for AMC and for RTL Hungary. With Andy Heffer, Declan won the inaugural Hypewriter contest to make the pilot for the TV series The Butcher.

BY THE NUMBERS

SPECIAL ACTIVITIES OUTSIDE THE FESTIVAL

1. Macabro at Film Club Café

As every year, Macabro presented a selection of feature films and short-film programmes that were part of the official selection and the Macabro Coven programme at Film Club Café, located in the northwest area of Mexico City, from October 26 to 31.

http://www.filmclubcafe.com.mx/ (abre en nueva pestaña)

1. Macabro at Cinemagic

For the first time, Macabro presented a showcase of the festival at the Ixtapaluca, Ixmiquilpan, and Matehuala complexes. On the 28th, 29th, and 30th, audiences enjoyed films such as Apps, Bienvenidos al infierno, La lotería and others that were part of our official selection this year.

www.cinemagic.com.mx (abre en nueva pestaña)

1. Halloween Party at Casa del Cine

On Saturday, October 29, Macabro took part in the “Aquelarre cinematográfico” organized by Casa del Cine. As part of Macabro Nocturno, Re-Animator and From Beyond were screened.

www.casadelcine.com.mx (abre en nueva pestaña)

1. Rendez-Vous at Capital 21

In collaboration with Capital 21 in Mexico City, the feature film Rendez-Vous by Pablo Olmos was screened.

1. Cinema Among the Tombs

This year, a screening among the tombs was held at the Museo Panteón de San Fernando, where Romero's classic, Night of the Living Dead, was presented on October 31, right in the middle of Halloween night.

SESIONES DEL MACABRO

Macabro's official podcast, Sesiones del Macabro, hosted by Edna Campos and Casandra Vicario, managed with 17 episodes to rank among the most-listened-to film podcasts in 2022, in addition to growing its audience by 125%. The most-listened-to episode is the one dedicated to cannibal cinema.

Season 3 of the podcast is currently airing, and it can be listened to along with the two previous seasons on Spotify (abre en nueva pestaña) and Apple Podcasts (abre en nueva pestaña).

MACABRO NOCTURNO

Macabro Nocturno is a project of #MacabroFICH in partnership with La Casa del Cine Mx that has presented, in a monthly screening since February 2015, horror film classics and part of the festival's film archive since its founding in 2002.

MACABRO PRESENTA

In September, a new space opened for the monthly exhibition of premieres and classic horror films: "Macabro Presenta" at Cineteca Nacional. The screenings began with "Mal de Ojo" by Isaac Ezban, followed later by "Nocturna, la noche del hombre grande," an Argentine film by Gonzalo Calzada, and "Hasta los huesos" by Luca Guadgnino. Screenings will continue throughout 2023.

MAKING OF

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1k2mN4BgjY (abre en nueva pestaña)