"I'm No Longer Here" wins big at the Ariel Awards

Mexico's own Oscar-like film awards have been handed out with I'm No Longer Here prevailing with 10 trophies. That's quite a haul. The drama is about a member of a dancing street gang (played by Juan Daniel Garcia Treviño, pictured left) who is forced to immigrate to the US to escape a local cartel. The cast was non-actors, hired for their dancing ability and authenticity. The film is currently streaming on Netflix if you're curious.

ARIEL AWARD NOMINEES & WINNERS

Picture

• Buy Me a Gun
• Dust
• I'm No Longer Here ★
• Suffocation
• This is Not Berlin

We believe all of these* are eligible to be Mexico's submission this year as none were on their finalist list last year for consideration (though some of the other films nominated in craft categories were). This probably means I'm No Longer Here is the likely submission but you never know. Since it does take place partially in the US it has some English in it (movies run into trouble with this particular category if the English dialogue is dominant or roughly equal to the non-English dialogue). * Clarification: All except This is Not Berlin which would not be eligible as it did have a US theatrical run in 2019.

The nominees and winners are after the jump. If we've previously written about the film there's a link...

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Tribeca 2019: "This is Not Berlin"

Team Experience reporting from Tribeca 2019. Here's Jason...

Most of us never have the benefit of being at the right cool place at the right cool time. Or even if we do we don't really get to realize that while its happening. It's only in hindsight that we can shape that experience into a start and finish; that our lives can be packaged for proper consumption. It's always too messy to start with --the hair's gotta come down and the high's gotta wear off before you can see anything straight.

That whole tale's right there in the title of This Is Not Berlin. Hari Sama's fierce new coming-of-age film does indeed not take place in Berlin, but rather astride the post-punk burgeoning New Wave art-scene of Mexico City in the mid-80s...

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Murtada's Sundance Awards

Murtada Elfadl closing out his Sundance coverage. Thanks, Murtada!

My first ever Sundance was a blast. So much so I’m already making tentative plans to return next year. Please indulge my 'jury of one' as I hand out awards in traditional categories and ones made up just for your reading pleasure. Please note that I only had time to see 23 movies. Some of the more popular ones I missed included the documentary One Child Nation , Shia LaBeouf's vehicle Honey Boy and the popular comedy Brittany Runs A Marathon. So take all this with a grain of salt...

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