L’heure d’été 2023 – MEXICO
Introducing
This year, for our annual festival, we’ll be taking you on a tour of Mexico City, with open-air screenings and special events!
As a pioneer of Latin American cinema, Mexico City has had an eventful cultural history, seeing the birth or welcoming of many directors considered to be true pillars of the seventh art from its beginnings right up to the present day.
Introducing
This year, for our annual festival, we’ll be taking you on a tour of Mexico City, with open-air screenings and special events!
As a pioneer of Latin American cinema, Mexico City has had an eventful cultural history, seeing the birth or welcoming of many directors considered to be true pillars of the seventh art from its beginnings right up to the present day.
Mexican cinema reflects an infinite cultural plurality. The Festival L’heure d’été presents a selection of diverse films that explore the city of Mexico as a starting point for a series of stories that examine it, reinterpret it, and simultaneously live it.
From Roberto Gavaldon to Guillermo del Toro and Lila Avilés, the diversity of Mexican cinema is manifested through a variety of films that capture the wonders and vices of their time. Accompanied by films shot in the rest of the country, this selection offers complementary perspectives and a unique voice, both in faces and settings, creating a cinema that has recorded the multiple facets of Mexican culture.Also foreign directors, such as Serguei Eisenstein and Gust Van den Berghe, have found captivating landscapes in Mexico for their stories. Whether through fascinating documentaries or unique animated films, each work contributes to this cinematic mosaic.
This year’s programme highlights iconic films such as Roma and Y tu mamá también by Alfonso Cuarón, as well as Amores perros by Alejandro González Iñárritu, all of which have captured the essence of Mexico City.
Mexican cinema is constantly evolving, representing a multitude of voices and talents. This varied programme is an invitation to discover the diversity of an infinitely rich Mexican culture. Welcome to this summer film journey through films that celebrate pluralities, influences, and knowledge, transporting us to places, dreams, homes, landscapes, and parties.
Co-programmator – Paula Astorga
Paula Astorga is film producer and Independent film promoter and curator based in Mexico City. She founded and directed the Mexico City International Film Festival FICCO (2004 -2008). Later, she became the Director of the National Cinematheque and Mexican Film Archive (2010-2013). She now teaches at CENTRO University and has been part of diverse International juries like Miami Film Fest, Rotterdam Film Festival, Seminci in Valladolid, and in the Director’s Fortnight in Cannes for Europa Cinemas special award, among others.
As a recognition for her work on the enhancement of cinema diversity and cultural legacy, in 2012 she received the honour of the decoration as Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier des arts et des lettres) from the French Ministry of Culture and Communication. Two years later, she was nominated by the Mont Blanc Foundation for The Award for Patronage for the Arts 2014.
Currently, she is the Head of studies of the Producer´s Lab in Locarno Film Festival. Her productions include Omar & Gloria (Doc Feature film) by Jimmy Cohen and Thara by Paco Ramirez (Short animated doc). Her last production, TRIGAL (Fiction Feature Film) from Argentinian director Anabel Caso, has been selected in the Morelia Film Festival (Mex), Málaga FF (Spain) and recently in Tubingen FF in Germany. Nowadays she is developing the documentaries I Absolutely refuse by Nina Wara Carrasco and My name in your grave by Francesco Roder.
