Prayers for the Stolen / Noche de fuego, the debut fiction feature by Tatiana Huezo (Tempestad) leads the nominations for the 64th annual Ariel Awards presented by the Mexican Academy of Film Arts and Sciences, with 19 noms including for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Cinematography.
Liberally adapted from Jennifer Clement’s eponymous 2014 novel, Prayers for the Stolen was the winner of a Special Mention in the Un Certain Regard competition at the Cannes Film Festival, the Best Latin American Film Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival, and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best International Film. The film was released internationally by streaming platform Netflix.
Set in a solitary town nestled in the Mexican mountains, where the girls wear boyish haircuts and have hiding places underground, the film tells the story of Ana and her two best friends take over the houses of those who have fled and dress up as women when no one is watching. In their own impenetrable universe, magic and joy abound; meanwhile, their mothers train them to flee from those who turn them into slaves or ghosts. But one day, one of the girls doesn’t make it to her hideout in time.
Two other films received 10 nominations each: Alonso Ruizpalacio’s A Cop Movie / Una película de policías and Ernesto Contreras’ Cosas Imposibles. Netflix’s A Cop Movie, the thoroughly original and unpredictable documentary, was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Documentary, and Best Actor, among other categories. Director Ruizpalacios plays with the boundaries of nonfiction and immerses the audience in the human experience of police work within a dysfunctional system, and propels the viewer into an unusual cinematic space, giving voice to one of Mexico’s—and the world’s—most controversial institutions.
Starring Nora Velázquez and Benny Emmanuel, Cosas Imposibles tells the story of a widow who is tormented by the memory of her abusive husband and befriends a young man. The fifth feature film by Contreras (I Dream in Another Language) was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress.
The other two films vying for Best Picture are The Other Tom / El Otro Tom by Rodrigo Plá and Laura Santullo, Nudo Mixteco by Ángeles Cruz. Mexican filmmaker Arturo Ripstein nabbed a nomination for Best Director for his latest film Devil Between the Legs / El diablo entre las piernas, which was also nominated in other seven categories.
In addition to A Cop Movie, the other productions nominated for Best Documentary are Cruz by Teresa Camou Guerrerol; Oaxacalifornia: The Return / Oaxacalifornia: El Regreso by Trisha Ziff,;What Happened to the Bees? / ¿Qué les pasó a las abejas? by Adriana Otero and Robin Canul; and I Named You in Silence /Te nombré en el silencio by José María Espinosa.
Competing for Best Ibero-American film are Cadejo Blanco by Justin Lerner from Guatemala; The Good Boss / El buen patrón by Fernando León de Aranoa from Spain; The Intruder / El prófugo by Natalia Meta from Argentina; Memoria by Apichatpong Weerasethakul from Colombia; and My Brothers Dream Awake / Mis hermanos sueñan despiertos (Chile) by Claudia Huaiquimilla. Additionally, Mexican actress Ilse Salas was nominated for Best Actress for the Panamanian-Mexican film Plaza Catedral by Abner Benaím.
The winners of the 64th Ariel Awards will be announced at a ceremony on October 11 in Mexico City.
