Fernando Frías’ I’m No Longer Here / Ya no estoy aquí and Hari Sama’s This Is Not Berlin / Esto no es Berlín lead the nominations in the 62nd edition the Ariel Awards, Mexico’s national film awards, with 13 and 12 nods respectively, including for Best Film and Best Director.
In I’m No Longer Here, a terrible misunderstanding with a local gang sends 17-year-old Ulises, leader of a group hooked on cumbia music, across the border to save his life. The film shot in Monterrey and New York City was also nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Original Script, and Best Editing.
This Is Not Berlin, which was a hit at the Sundance Film Festival, is set in Mexico City in 1986 and follows Carlos, a teenager who doesn't fit in anywhere. But everything changes when he is invited to a mythical nightclub where he discovers the underground nightlife scene: post punk, sexual liberty, and drugs that challenges the relationship with his best friend Gera and lets him find his passion for art. Protagonist Xabiani Ponce de León was nominated for Best Actor, and the film also earned nominations for Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Script, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing.
The other three productions nominated for Best Film and Best Director are Polvo, the debut feature by actor José María Yazpik; Buy Me a Gun / Cómprame un revólver by Julio Hernández Cordón; and Asfixia by Kenya Márquez.
Nominated for Best Documentary are Luke Lorentzen’s Midnight Family / Familia de medianoche, Marcela Arteaga’s The Guardian of Memory / El guardían de la memoria, Nuria Ibáñez’s A Wild Stream / Una corriente salvaje, Diego Osorno’s Vaquero de mediodía, and Acelo Ruiz Villanueva’s Oblatos, el vuelo que surcó la noche.
The four Latin American productions nominated for Best Ibero-American film are Monos by Alejandro Landes from Colombia, Retablo by Álvaro Delgado from Peru, Invisible Life / A Vida Invisível by Karim Aïnouz from Brazil, and Heroic Losers / La odisea de los giles by Sebastián Borensztein from Argentina.
The winners of the 62nd edition of the Ariel Awards, presented by the Mexican Academy of Film Arts and Sciences, will be announced at a television show on September 20.
