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Every October, Morelia\u2019s historic centre fills with glimpses of famous faces, as filmmakers and film fanatics rush between screenings in the very pretty city where Cin\u00e9polis began.<\/p>
The festival\u2019s starry 24th edition opened with Jon\u00e1s Cuar\u00f3n\u2019s\u00a0Campe\u00f3n gabacho<\/em>, attended by his father, Alfonso. James Gray presented\u00a0Paper Tiger<\/em>\u00a0and received the festival\u2019s Artistic Excellence Award.<\/p> Diego Luna premiered\u00a0Ceniza en la boca<\/em>, Diego Calva arrived with\u00a0Club Kid<\/em>\u00a0and Diego Boneta with\u00a0Killing Castro<\/em>. When screams erupted outside the Teatro Matamoros, you could usually be fairly certain that someone called Diego was nearby.<\/p> Gael Garc\u00eda Bernal, walking the red carpet with his mother, Patricia, to present his film\u00a0Hombre al agua<\/em>, drew similarly ear-splitting, almost unfathomable levels of volume.<\/p> Beyond the red carpet, a great range of emerging Mexican filmmakers were pursuing their own, often boundary-pushing visions.<\/p> Fernanda Tovar\u2019s debut\u00a0Chicas tristes<\/em>, about two teenage swimmers whose friendship is tested by sexual violence, arrived with two Berlinale prizes and an enormous amount of hype. Last-minute ticket queues stretched around the block and down the cobbled streets, and they often dispersed into clouds of disappointed faces trundling off to find another film (mine included).<\/p> Joaqu\u00edn del Paso\u2019s\u00a0El jard\u00edn que so\u00f1amos<\/em>\u00a0came back to Michoac\u00e1n, where it was set and filmed, in the middle of an impressive international festival run. Nathalia Acevedo brought\u00a0Sal\u00f3n de belleza<\/em>, her atmospheric adaptation of Mario Bellatin\u2019s novel. Axel Bertha\u2019s\u00a0Contra la naturaleza<\/em>, shot on 35mm, is a strange and compelling meditation on time.<\/p> But experimentation was not confined to emerging directors. Carlos Reygadas returned after eight years with\u00a0Heil Jupiter!<\/em>, a film that moves between reality and mythology and is partly spoken in an invented language. It is sometimes mind-boggling and often fascinating. Above all, it is deeply reassuring proof that some filmmakers are still prepared to challenge their audiences: we are not rushing down the river of algorithmic slop quite yet.<\/p> Marine Atlan\u2019s\u00a0La Gradiva<\/em>, winner of the Cannes Critics\u2019 Week Grand Prize, was unsettling and luminous.\u00a0NAZA<\/em>, from\u00a0No Other Land<\/em>\u00a0directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, investigates Israeli military operations and civilian deaths in Gaza, and it was one of the most important screenings of the festival. Cristian Mungiu\u2019s\u00a0Fjord<\/em>, winner of this year\u2019s Palme d\u2019Or at Cannes, was another impossible ticket to secure.<\/p> The great and ever greater Guillermo del Toro returned for the 20th anniversary of\u00a0Pan\u2019s Labyrinth<\/em>. He organised an additional screening for disappointed fans who had missed out on tickets despite sleeping outside the theatre overnight. The next day, he gave a masterclass. Reiterating a point he made at Cannes earlier this year, he emphasised the threat that AI poses to artistic expression. \u201cWe must cherish the process\u201d, he urged young filmmakers.<\/p> The Mexican industry also gained a new player: Caos Cine, a distribution company that launched with\u00a0La cazadora<\/em>. Meanwhile, Morelia and Ambulante renewed their partnership with a new Eugenio Polgovsky Award, which supports Mexican documentaries in post-production. Polgovsky was an exceptionally talented Mexican documentary maker who died too young.<\/p> FICM offers plenty of evidence that Mexican cinema remains ambitious, inventive and sometimes contrary, and that Morelia is a place where filmmakers at every stage of their careers converge.<\/p> And, of course, it also offered the simple pleasure of spending hours each day watching stories told in enormous, god-like images: something we should all be able to do more often.<\/p> A ceremonial complex at Teteles de \u00c1vila Castillo, in the Sierra Norte de Puebla, functioned as a solar observatory more than 2,500 years ago, the first such site recorded outside the Maya region, according to the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). The finding, announced in an INAH bulletin on 13 October, draws on comparative studies of Mesoamerican urban planning.<\/p> The complex, known as Group E or Tetelihtic, sits east of the settlement\u2019s Great Plaza and consists of a square courtyard flanked by two platforms: an elongated eastern one (90 by 40 metres) and a smaller western observation platform (46 by 27 metres). Project director Alberto Diez Barroso Repizo said the layout is identical to Maya examples such as Group E at Uaxact\u00fan, in Guatemala, although Tetelihtic is twice its size. Both date from the Middle Preclassic period (1000 to 600 BCE).<\/p> According to Diez Barroso, Tetelihtic\u2019s elongated platform does not mark the equinoxes at its centre. Instead, it marks the start of the Mesoamerican calendar in February and the harvest in October. Viewed from its front at dawn, it also tracks the sun at the equinoxes and solstices, making it a solar calendar.<\/p> He described the settlement as an outstanding example of pre-Hispanic urbanism shaped by the surrounding mountains and the astronomical horizon. He said the findings support the Maya ethnolinguistic roots of Huastec groups and suggest a Maya presence at Teteles as early as 1000 BCE. He also proposed a link to the Nahua goddess Nantehuitz, \u201cour mother of the south\u201d, based on the main structure\u2019s alignment with Canopus, the night sky\u2019s second-brightest star.<\/p> The project also hypothesises that Totonac culture originated at the site. Tetelihtic was active from around 900 BCE to 100 CE and was partly abandoned as Cantona, Cholula and Teotihuacan rose to prominence, although offerings show it remained a place of worship. Diez Barroso cited a Totonac offering dated 600 to 900 CE as evidence that the site\u2019s original inhabitants were ancestors of the Totonac peoples of Yohualichan and El Taj\u00edn.<\/p> Culture Secretary Claudia Curiel de Icaza said the research reveals the depth of Mesoamerican astronomical knowledge. A conference and photographic exhibition, organised with the local council and the civil association Tzoncoyotl, presented the finding publicly earlier this month.<\/p> As Day of the Dead approaches, the calendar fills up with parades, altar displays and other cultural events to honour the holiday across Mexico. Here is a sampling of offerings in Mexico City, in Guadalajara and in one of the country\u2019s most popular and iconic destinations for D\u00eda de Muertos: Michoac\u00e1n.<\/p> Mexico City\u2019s celebrations are already well under way. Cempas\u00fachil growers from Tl\u00e1huac, Milpa Alta and Xochimilco are selling their flowers on Paseo de la Reforma until 1 November, while a light installation,\u00a0El Camino<\/em>, illuminates Reforma from the \u00c1ngel de la Independencia to the Puerta de los Leones until 8 November. Tonight (24 October), a 19-kilometre bike ride with costumes and DJs runs from the Fuente de Petr\u00f3leos to the historic centre, and on Sunday 25 October the citizen-organised Mega Procesi\u00f3n de las Catrinas fills Reforma.<\/p> From 29 October to 2 November, the Z\u00f3calo hosts the Ofrenda Monumental, this year dedicated to Jos\u00e9 Guadalupe Posada\u2019s Catrina, with a 32-metre papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9 figure, sawdust carpets and free concerts. Community altars appear at 12 sites across the city over the same period. In the Second Section of Chapultepec,\u00a0La Puerta entre dos mundos<\/em>\u00a0(29 October to 4 November) brings altars, music, food and a night-time drone show.<\/p> The centrepiece is the Gran Desfile de D\u00eda de Muertos on Saturday 31 October at 14:00, which travels along Reforma to the Z\u00f3calo. Now in its tenth edition, it features floats paying tribute to Juan Gabriel, Emilio \u201cEl Indio\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez and the Red Queen of Palenque, and also remembers Juan Rulfo, 40 years after his death.<\/p> From 23 October to 17 January 2027, the Museo Dolores Olmedo, which reopened in May after closing in 2021, is staging its traditional ofrenda back at La Noria, Xochimilco. Olmedo championed the altar tradition from 1958 to preserve the work of Mexican artisans. On 28 October, the Museo Nacional de Culturas del Mundo opens\u00a0Muertos de Egipto y M\u00e9xico<\/em>, an exhibition of painting, photography and textiles comparing the two cultures\u2019 rituals of death, with free entry during Noche de Museos.<\/p> At Ciudad Universitaria, UNAM\u2019s Megaofrenda marks the university\u2019s 475th anniversary. San Andr\u00e9s Mixquic, in Tl\u00e1huac, is regarded as the city\u2019s most traditional observance. It culminates on the night of 2 November with La Alumbrada, when the colonial cemetery is lit only by thousands of candles on the graves.<\/p> Jalisco\u2019s Festival de las Almas returns for a second edition, with more than 350 free activities in 11 municipalities from 24 October to 15 November. In the metropolitan area, Tlaquepaque alone hosts around 80 events. From 30 October to 2 November, Plaza Guadalajara becomes the Plaza de las Almas, with monumental altars and a catrina parade. The Fiestas de Octubre add a Day of the Dead programme from 27 October to 2 November, closing with a concert by Carlos Rivera. Calaverandia, the ticketed Day of the Dead theme park, is now open for its seventh season at Parque \u00c1vila Camacho, where its 15-metre Catrina once again rises above the lake.<\/p> Michoac\u00e1n is well known and celebrated for its Day of the Dead traditions and there are hundreds of events planned statewide. In Uruapan, the Festival de las Velas (24 October to 1 November) covers the main squares with sawdust carpets and more than 50,000 candles, and this year includes a tribute to Carlos Manzo, the mayor assassinated during last year\u2019s celebrations. Around Lake P\u00e1tzcuaro, families keep candlelit vigils at the graves on 1 November, while Morelia stages a catrina parade on Avenida Madero.<\/p> The legendary Mexican Norte\u00f1o band Los Tigres del Norte finally made it to NPR\u2019s Tiny Desk, closing El Tiny, the series\u2019 Hispanic Heritage Month programme. Frontman Jorge Hern\u00e1ndez told the\u00a0Los Angeles Times<\/em>\u00a0that the appearance was \u201cbeautiful and historic\u201d and should have happened 10 to 15 years earlier. The set was recorded on 27 August at NPR\u2019s Washington headquarters, where the crowd can be heard singing along, and released on 15 October. It opened with Somos m\u00e1s americanos, the band\u2019s 2001 song declaring Mexicans more American than the \u201cgringos\u201d and recalling the territory Mexico lost to the US. The band also played La puerta negra, Ni parientes somos, Golpes en el coraz\u00f3n and Quiero volar contigo. Hern\u00e1ndez hoped English-speaking viewers would look up the lyrics and connect with them.<\/p> Los Tigres, a family band of humble Sinaloan roots, built their career on a sound much imitated but rarely matched. Two distinctive voices join accordion melodies, a melancholy saxophone and a tightly drilled rhythm section. Much of their repertoire chronicles the emotional toll of migration. Alongside it are the heartbreak songs that have become fixtures at Mexican fiestas. Their music has also drawn official disapproval. The band has accused PRI governments of censoring La granja, an allegory about the party\u2019s links to drug trafficking, and El circo, about the Salinas de Gortari brothers. Under Vicente Fox, the Interior Ministry sought to keep their music off the radio, arguing that it glorified crime. Their 1989 album\u00a0Corridos prohibidos<\/em>\u00a0is, according to\u00a0Gatopardo<\/em>, the second best-selling record in the history of regional Mexican music, behind their own\u00a0Jefe de jefes<\/em>.<\/p> The devotion they inspire is the stuff of legend. Their bailes have run for up to 12 hours, and maquiladoras in states such as Chihuahua reportedly plan the working month around the band\u2019s dance calendar. They played Folsom State Prison in California to mark 50 years since Johnny Cash\u2019s concert there, for an inmate population that is now largely Latino. They also crossed over early, playing the rock festival Vive Latino when regional Mexican music was still considered out of place there. Today\u2019s stars of corridos tumbados, from Peso Pluma to Natanael Cano, owe much to that groundwork, although Los Tigres have always avoided the profanity and celebration of excess common in the newer genre.<\/p> The controversy concerned what came before the music. Most Tiny Desk videos cut straight to the performance, but this one opened with the two Alt.Latino hosts addressing the crowd. Anamaria Sayre spoke first, in Spanish. She noted that many fans had come with their families and said she was thinking of her own family with pride. Felix Contreras, co-founder of Alt.Latino and curator of El Tiny, followed in English, his voice breaking. He traced the persecution Mexicans have faced in the US, from the 1848 border change to the mass deportations of Operation Wetback. \u201cOur community is under attack and it\u2019s not the first time,\u201d he said, adding that Los Tigres had long given that community back its humanity. Both hosts were in tears by the time he called the band to the stage.<\/p> Within a day, viewers noticed that most of his remarks had vanished from the YouTube version, leaving only his closing thanks. Sayre\u2019s introduction remained intact. Accusations of censorship spread quickly, and more than 15,000 comments accumulated beneath the video. In a pinned comment, NPR said that Tiny Desk videos do not usually include introductions and that it had removed the segment temporarily for editorial review, calling the subject emotional and complex. Critics pointed to the inconsistency: if introductions were the problem, why cut only one of them? NPR restored the full introduction on its website and promised to do the same on YouTube.<\/p> A column by NPR\u2019s public editor, Kelly McBride of the Poynter Institute, has since explained what happened internally. The remarks had never been cleared by the team that reviews content before publication. Newsroom leadership therefore had to decide after the fact whether they breached NPR\u2019s impartiality standards, which bar its journalists from taking political or activist positions, although the broadcaster has allowed more room for personal expressions of identity since 2020. While that review was under way, leadership ordered the cut. Chief music editor Jacob Ganz admitted that the team \u201cdidn\u2019t engage in that process actively enough\u201d before publication. McBride called the temporary edit misguided, arguing that it penalised the audience for NPR\u2019s own missed steps. She concluded that Contreras had not been wrong to say his community was under attack.<\/p> Contreras then told fans in an Instagram video that his words had not been meant for publication but had resonated in ways no one anticipated. He added that he had never felt so much support for his work at NPR. By 18 October the complete version was back on YouTube, where it has passed four million views.<\/p> San Miguel de Allende honours Friedeberg.\u00a0<\/strong>San Miguel de Allende is hosting the most ambitious tribute to date to the late artist Pedro Friedeberg (1936\u20132026), including more than 500 pieces from seven decades of his work. The work is on display in three venues and free to visit until 28 February 2027. The project is organised by INBAL, Fomento Cultural Banamex and the Fundaci\u00f3n Pedro Friedeberg. It draws on the foundation\u2019s holdings, Mexico City galleries and private collections, and a significant share of the work comes from his final years. Casa Diana, his former family home, presents\u00a0Privacidad y elegancia<\/em>, an intimate portrait; the Casa del Mayorazgo de la Canal hosts\u00a0L\u00edneas de fuga<\/em>, focused on geometry and perspective; and the Centro Cultural El Nigromante offers\u00a0Hilaridad y melancol\u00eda<\/em>, exploring humour and nostalgia, with a recreation of his studio and unfinished pieces. An immersive light installation completes the circuit. A further section covers his more than 20 years in the city through letters, photographs and furniture he designed.<\/p> Cervantino closes 54th edition with record attendance.\u00a0<\/strong>The 54th Festival Internacional Cervantino closed on 18 October with more than 386,000 attendees, up roughly 17 per cent on the 330,000-plus recorded in 2025. Over 16 days, 3,325 artists from 29 countries gave 215 performances, alongside 49 exhibitions across eight municipalities in Guanajuato. State tourism officials estimate an economic impact of 519.9 million pesos, a 14 per cent rise, with hotel occupancy in the city at 60 per cent. Culture Secretary Claudia Curiel de Icaza highlighted the festival\u2019s national reach: 20 states contributed programming, while the Circuito Cervantino took events to 31 cities and drew 71,165 people. France, guest country in the bicentennial year of Franco-Mexican diplomatic relations, brought 175 artists, including Ensemble Pygmalion and (LA)HORDE with the Ballet national de Marseille. French producer Dabeull and his analogue funk band closed proceedings at the Alh\u00f3ndiga de Granaditas.<\/p> Monterrey Book Fair breaks attendance record.\u00a0<\/strong>The Feria Internacional del Libro de Monterrey, hosted by the Tecnol\u00f3gico de Monterrey, closed its 34th edition on 18 October with close to half a million visitors, up from 360,000 last year. Organisers counted 450,000 before Sunday\u2019s figures were added. Guest of honour El Colegio Nacional drew 15,000 people to its stand and sold 3,000 books, with Cristina Rivera Garza\u2019s titles almost selling out. Fair president Carmen Junco described an increasingly academic programme, with a philosophy strand added this year and more than 50,000 students visiting. Emmanuel Carr\u00e8re opened the fair. Spain will be guest country in 2027, with a critical look at the Generation of \u201827, including its women writers and the Republican exile in Mexico. Poet Pedro Garfias, one of those exiles, is buried in Nuevo Le\u00f3n.<\/p> Original returns to Los Pinos.\u00a0<\/strong>Original, the federal Culture Ministry\u2019s showcase of traditional textile, decorative and utilitarian art, returns to the Complejo Cultural Los Pinos in Mexico City from 12 to 15 November for its tenth edition. Some 580 master artisans from 31 states, representing 36 Indigenous languages and communities, will sell directly to the public. Their work spans textiles, ceramics, jewellery, woodwork, lacquer and plant fibres. An international pavilion brings 14 artisans from nine countries, including Ghana, Norway and Peru.<\/p> Beyond the stalls, the programme includes 84 activities for all ages, among them workshops and storytelling. There will be runway shows every evening at 19:00, broadcast on Canal 22, and 16 concerts on the Escenario Velaria, ranging from Zapotec rap by Juchirap to Tsotsil rock by Sak Tzevul. A new strand, Profesionales ORIGINAL, offers 15 sessions on exhibiting and selling traditional art. Culture Secretary Claudia Curiel de Icaza framed the event as part of wider support for the sector. She said the ministry had worked with more than 127,000 artisans in 2026, up 48 per cent, and that Fonart sales had risen 56 per cent. Entry is free, from 10:30 to 20:30 daily.<\/p>Mexico\u2019s oldest solar observatory<\/h3>
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Day of the Dead: altars, parades and vigils<\/h3>
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Ciudad de M\u00e9xico<\/h4>
Guadalajara<\/h4>
Michoac\u00e1n<\/h4>
Kings of the Corrido finally reach Tiny Desk<\/h3>
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Chatter Box<\/h3>
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Culture Outing<\/h3>
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