Is Mexico Entering a New Golden Age of Cinema? Lauren Villagran - SmartPlanet
go to original September 13, 2013

Mexico's Amat Escalante won the best director prize at the Cannes Film Festival in May for the ultra-violent "Heli" about his country's blood-drenched drug wars. (CineVistaBlog)

MEXICO CITY — After Mexico’s Golden Age of cinema in the 1940s and 1950s, it was as if the theater went dark. The money that had flowed into Mexican moviemaking during the second World War receded back to Hollywood and European capitals. And the Mexican industry sunk into a decades-long slump.

It’s a new day for Mexican cinema – an “age” perhaps too young to be called golden. But words like “renaissance” and “new wave” have been bandied about, as Mexican films increasingly win recognition as much by the arbiters of great cinema as at the box office. A nascent independent film industry, which sprung again onto the world scene at the turn of the millennium, has begun to come into its own.

There is more money, and more talent, in the field than there has been in years. Mexicans have taken three of the past seven awards for Best Director at Cannes. A new multi-million dollar production facility fit to host larger independent film productions is in the works. Film festivals have flourished and gained prestige; one in Morelia, Michoacan, inaugurated a film scriptwriting school last year. And, crucially, independent Mexican films are starting to earn their keep at the box office.

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