Despite the financial and organizational struggles that have plagued the Mexican Academy of Film Arts and Sciences the past few years, the 54th ‘Mexican Oscars’ took place last Saturday night in Mexico City’s splendid Palace of Fine Arts, the home of such grand mural masterpieces by David Alfaro Siqueiros, Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco.
Most of the wins were divvied up between gritty crime action thriller, Dias de Gracia, written and directed by Everardo Gout, and Pastorela, the hilarious Christmas play comedy written and directed by Emilio Portes. Both films are highly stylized and accomplished first features. Technically, the most wins went to Dias de Gracia which took eight awards, but it was Pastorela that had the most coveted awards bestowed including Best Film and Best Director. Although Gerardo Naranjo’s cinematic tour-de force, Miss Bala was nominated for Best Film and Best Director, and submitted for best foreign language Oscar, it walked away empty handed – a puzzling snub if you ask me.
