As COVID-19 continues to force planned gatherings and festivals to be shut down, event coordinators have been forced to get a little creative. The Hold Mexico Film Festival is satisfying hungry film fans with a little virtual theater experience prior to the 12th edition of the festival scheduled for this fall. The experience is called the Hola Mexico Virtual Theater online film series and it starts on May 21.

The festival itself has been postponed until September of this year, but that hasn’t stopped Hola Mexico from bringing the best Mexican cinema has to offer to viewers everywhere. The virtual theater experience gives viewers a chance to appreciate some of the best films Mexican filmmakers have produced in recent years. It also serves as a testament as to how much the genre has grown (and continues to grow) over the last few decades. Acting as a sort of showcase, the films have been carefully chosen so viewers can enjoy quality Mexican cinema while staying safe at home.

Below are trailers for two featured films in the virtual cinema series. Check out the full schedule and list of films for the rest of May here. Tickets are a steal at $4.99 a pop and can be purchased here. COVID-19 sucks, but it has gifted us with virtual film festivals, and with them come with access and exposure to films we would otherwise likely never experience. A silver lining perhaps?

Los Parecidos (The Similars)
May 21, 2020
Dir. Isaac Ezban
Cast: Gustavo Sánchez Parra, Cassandra Ciangherotti, Fernando Becerril, Humberto Busto, Carmen Beato, Santiago Torres, Maria Elena Olivares, Catalina Salas, Alberto Estrella, Luis Alberti.
Synopsis: On the rainy night of October 2, 1968, eight characters waiting on a remote bus station in the middle of nowhere for a bus heading to Mexico City start experiencing a strange phenomenon.