Thank You for Making This Monster Bigger and Bigger: #MacabroXVIII

This year, Macabro International Horror Film Festival of Mexico City celebrated eighteen years of continuous operation. Throughout this entire time, the festival has been held, year after year, with an unbreakable spirit of struggle to consolidate its spaces, growth, and recognition — both institutional and international — that now place it among the most respected festivals on the circuit. Prestigious media outlets -like MovieMaker Magazine – included it among the 30 most anticipated fantastic-genre film festivals this year.

After a year of doubts, questions, and many absences (some happy, others unexpected), Macabro showed us why it is — and will continue to be — a unique experience: live-scored events, film rescues, cult cinema, drive-in screenings, ghosts, entities, non-zombies, monsters in love, killer mermaids, sects and cults, the remembrance of THE cannibal movie, the rivalry between a lobster and a dolphin, and even a marriage proposal, not to mention the return of our training project, Macabro Lab. The closing could not have been more wonderful, with a theater full of flower wreaths for the Midsommar celebration, among many other things that made these twelve days the best yet.

The community that has given life to this festival, made up of organizers, staff, volunteers, sponsors, and institutions; external collaborators, guests, and Mexican directors who have arrived and made Macabro their "place to be" (as writer Iván Farías calls the festival); the friends who have bonded over the prosthetics and latex of a gore movie, the loyal followers who are now members of the Sociedad Macabro, and those who year after year hear the call of blood the moment they hear the name Macabro, gathering year after year to experience the feeling of living, reflecting on, and enjoying the fear that a horror film brings.

Making a festival like Macabro remains a great journey into the underworld, one we hope to continue for many years to come.

My deepest thanks to:

Secretaría de Cultura de la Ciudad de México, the Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía, La Filmoteca de la UNAM, PROCINE CDMX, and the Cineteca Nacional.

Teatro de la Ciudad "Esperanza Iris", Cineteca Nacional, Cinematógrafo del Chopo, Casa del Cine, Museo Archivo de la Fotografía, Museo Panteón de San Fernando, Museo de la Ciudad de México, Biblioteca de México, Centro Cultural "El Rule", Centro Cultural "Xavier Villaurrutia, Cine Villa Olímpica, Circuito de FARO's, Facultad de Cine, Sala Julián Carrillo de Radio UNAM, Circo Volador, Universidad Latinoamericana plantel Del Valle, and Pulquería "Los Insurgentes".

And a very special thanks to the Macabro Team for their passion and dedication in making this festival an epic event:

Alan Huerta, Jocelyn Guzmán, Mario "Ayanami" Valencia, Arturo Rojas Rojas, Pablo Rendón, Sharon Ordóñez, Georgina Cobos, Roxana Ruíz, Diego Álvarez, Giovanni Carbajal, Daniel Ballinas Núñez, Luiz Méndez, Casandra Vicario, Sharon Toribio, Sandra Monroy Mandujano, Daniel Arreola, Osvaldo Patlán, Diego "soy leyenda" Vilchis, Ángel Fernández, João Fleck, and Nicolas Tonsho.

With the support of: Laura Doménica Enríquez, Diego David Rivera, Laid Arisay, Brenda Gutiérrez, Andrea Vite Campos, Juan Guerrero Rosales, Mabel Tinajero, Yanelly Trujillo, Carlos Aguado Vieyra, Sergio Chávez, Ernesto Sánchez, Israel Aguirre, Johan Tapia, Melisa Blanquel, Dafne Pineda, Diana Galán, Rodrigo Antonio Mejías, and Fernando Lucio.

To Mayra Teodorez and Abraham Valdés, for all those years of Macabro. To our families and friends.

And to all the macabre volunteers.

– Edna Campos Tenorio

General Director and Founder of Macabro FICH

Also in the Diary

MACABRO FICH PRESENTS EXHIBITION, MEMORABILIA, AND BOOK FOR ITS XXV ANNIVERSARY

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Third Call for Entries "60 Seconds Before Midnight