Gerardo Naranjo’s ‘Kokoloko’ Wins Best Mexican Film at Guadalajara

Anna Marie de la Fuente
·4 min read

Gerardo Naranjo’s “Kokoloko” took home the Premio Mezcal for best Mexican film at the hybrid 35th Guadalajara Film Festival (FICG), which wrapped Friday, Nov. 27.

The love triangle drama signals a return to the big screen for Naranjo who has spent nearly a decade after his 2011 hit “Miss Bala” directing episodes of such high-profile series as “Narcos,” “The Bridge” and “Fear the Walking Dead.”

Shot in 16 mm, Naranjo’s drama about a woman caught between two men, one a violent cousin holding her captive, first debuted at Tribeca where lead Noe Hernandez won the Best Actor prize. The Match Factory handles international sales.

Chilean film and TV writer-director-producer Andres Wood won the Best Ibero-American film prize with his political thriller “Spider,” that tracks the disparate fates of right-wing radicals in the early ‘70s, prior to the coup d’état that heralds the military regime of Augusto Pinochet in Chile. Drama was Chile’s submission to the Best International competition at the 92nd Academy Awards this year.

However, it was Samuel Kishi’s tender, semi-autobiographical drama, “Los Lobos,” that took home the most awards at FICG, including the Audience Award, a best actress nod for Martha Reyes, a Fipresci critics prize, a Made in Jalisco award and a Special Jury Prize in the Ibero-American competitive section. It has been sold by FiGa Films to HBO, all of Europe and some Latin American territories.

In “Los Lobos” (“The Wolves”), a single Mexican mother and her two young sons struggle to adapt to their new life in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Left home alone as their mother tries to earn a living, the boys resort to fantasy to ease their tedium.

In a live ceremony on Friday, Igor Lozada, secretary of the Guadalajara Film Festival board, announced that the festival’s hybrid version lured 5,960 people to its in-person events while 10,500 people viewed or participated in the festival’s screenings, conferences, master classes, panels and other industry events.

The festival’s social media presence expanded to significant levels, said Lozada.

“The decision to hold the festival in person was made with great responsibility; I am convinced that cultural spaces are the showcase of the new culture, it is our way of showing that we need to mature, learn and collaborate in ways that are different from what we are used to; It was a decision that I am sure was the best that could have been made,” said festival director Estrella Araiza who did not specify dates for the festival’s 36th edition but said that it would likely be held in the summer next year.

Women filmmakers dominated the prizes at the festival’s industry section, which unspooled Nov. 20-25. At Guadalajara’s Co-Production Meetings, where producers and directors presented a variety of genres vying for sales, distribution and production partners, various sponsors doled out prizes in kind.

The biggest prize, the GGM Studios Production Services prize, valued at $1.5 million Mexican pesos ($74,000), went to Astrid Rondero for her drama, “Sujo,” which centers on a late cartel gunman’s son who finds a path his father had always wished for him.

The inaugural competitive TV section, Episode 0: Series in Development, saw producer Eva Ruiz de Chavez take home both prizes in play for her satirical animated series, “Wild City.” The two awards consist of post-production services from Cinecolor Mexico and Shalala Studios, worth a combined $35,000 (700,000 pesos) and a scholarship valued at $2,800 to The Series Lab of Colombia’s Pontifical Xavierian University and accreditation for the Bogota Audiovisual Market (BAM).

The 35th Guadalajara Film Festival ran over Nov. 20-27.

MEXICAN PREMIO MEZCAL WINNERS

BEST FILM
“Kokoloko,” (Gerardo Naranjo, Mexico)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHER
Sofia Oggioni, (“Tragic Jungle,” Mexico, France, Colombia)

BEST ACTOR
Alfredo Castro, (“My Tender Matador,” Chile)

BEST ACTRESS
Martha Reyes, (“Los Lobos,” Mexico)

AUDIENCE AWARD
“Los Lobos,” (Samuel Kishi)

IBEROAMERICAN PREMIO MEZCAL WINNERS

BEST FILM
“Spider,” Andres Wood (Chile, Argentina, Brazil)

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE
“Los Lobos” (Mexico)

BEST DIRECTOR
Juan Pablo Fenix, (“Karnawal,” Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Norway, Bolivia, France)

BEST FIRST FILM
“Piola,” (Luis Alejandro Perez, Chile)

BEST ACTRESS
Greta Fernandez, (“The Thief’s Daughter,” Spain)

BEST ACTOR
Luis Tosar, (“Out in the Open,” Spain), and Alfredo Castro (“Karnawal”)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Nicolas Wong, (“La Llorona,” Guatemala, France)

BEST SCREENPLAY
Diego and Daniel Vega, (“The Clash,” Peru, Colombia)

BEST DOCUMENTARY
“The Song of the Butterflies,” Nuria Frigola (Peru)

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE, DOCUMENTARY
“The Second Burial of Alejandrino,” Raúl Soto (Colombia)

BEST ANIMATED FILM
“Josep,” (Aurel, France, Spain)

SPECIAL JURY MENTION, ANIMATED FILM
“El Gran Cuento de los Osos,” (Lorenzo Mattotti, France, Italy)

BEST ANIMATED SHORT, Rigoberto Mora Int’l Prize
“The Physics of Sorrow,” (Theodore Ushev, Canada)

BEST IBERO-AMERICAN ANIMATED SHORT
“La Medallita” ​(Martín Aletta, Argentina)

PREMIO MAGUEY

BEST FILM
“Port Authority,”​ (Daniel Lessovitz, USA. France)

BEST PERFORMANCE
Alfredo Castro, ​(“My Tender Matador,” Mexico, Chile, Argentina)

JURY PRIZE
“No Hard Feelings,”​ (Faraz Shariat, Germany)

FIPRESCI INTERNATIONAL CRITICS PRIZE
“Los Lobos,” (Samuel Kishi)

FEISAL PRIZE
“Brouwer, The Origin of the Shadow,” (Katherine T. Gavilan and Lisandra López Fabé, Cuba)

MADE IN JALISCO

BEST FILM
“Los Lobos,” (Samuel Kishi)

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