Roger Ross Williams, the director of Cassandro, opened up about why it was important to portray a positive queer story in the biopic based on a real-life gay amateur wrestler that turned Mexican lucha libre on its head.
“It was really important to tell a positive queer story about someone who is inspirational — someone who inspired me,” Williams said during a panel for the MGM Amazon Studios film at Deadline’s Contenders Film: Los Angeles.
Williams said he made a short about the wrestling star and when he met the luchador he said, “You’re it! You’re my first scripted film.”
“I totally fell in love with his energy, his positivity, and the power of his story that in this macho, totally macho, male-dominated, homophobic world — he used that, he took back his power,” he said. “He used all the negativity and he turned it into a positive thing...
“It was really important to tell a positive queer story about someone who is inspirational — someone who inspired me,” Williams said during a panel for the MGM Amazon Studios film at Deadline’s Contenders Film: Los Angeles.
Williams said he made a short about the wrestling star and when he met the luchador he said, “You’re it! You’re my first scripted film.”
“I totally fell in love with his energy, his positivity, and the power of his story that in this macho, totally macho, male-dominated, homophobic world — he used that, he took back his power,” he said. “He used all the negativity and he turned it into a positive thing...
- 11/19/2023
- by Armando Tinoco
- Deadline Film + TV
Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events. Predictions are updated every Thursday.
Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:
Oscars | Emmys | Grammys | Tonys
2024 Oscars Predictions:
Best Achievement in Costume Design Rachel McAdams as Barbara Simon, Abby Ryder Fortson as Margaret Simon, and Benny Safdie as Herb Simon in Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. Photo Credit: Dana Hawley
Weekly Commentary: More to come.
Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the...
Visit the prediction pages for the respective ceremonies via the links below:
Oscars | Emmys | Grammys | Tonys
2024 Oscars Predictions:
Best Achievement in Costume Design Rachel McAdams as Barbara Simon, Abby Ryder Fortson as Margaret Simon, and Benny Safdie as Herb Simon in Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. Photo Credit: Dana Hawley
Weekly Commentary: More to come.
Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the...
- 11/7/2023
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
For nearly a century, exóticos have been the clowns of Mexican wrestling: silly, queer-coded characters in flamboyant drag who pranced about the ring for the amusement of homophobic crowds. These hoary stereotypes have long been a part of the tradition of lucha libre — the country’s second-most-popular sport after soccer. Since Mexican wrestling matches are treated like elaborate metaphors of good versus evil, exóticos always lost to their more macho adversaries. Until Cassandro, an openly gay fighter whose outsized personality and atypical success feel ready-made for the movies.
Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams not only knows it, but possesses special insights into Cassandro’s story, having profiled “The Man Without a Mask” Saúl Armendáriz for his 2016 short film of the same name. Thanks to the dream casting of Mexican star Gael García Bernal as “the Liberace of Lucha Libre,” “Cassandro” arrives with a kind of instant credibility, which Williams protects...
Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams not only knows it, but possesses special insights into Cassandro’s story, having profiled “The Man Without a Mask” Saúl Armendáriz for his 2016 short film of the same name. Thanks to the dream casting of Mexican star Gael García Bernal as “the Liberace of Lucha Libre,” “Cassandro” arrives with a kind of instant credibility, which Williams protects...
- 1/21/2023
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Gael García Bernal nails his best role in years, giving a performance steeped in cheeky humor, resilience and radical self-belief — not to mention some amazingly nimble moves — as groundbreaking lucha libre wrestler Saúl Armendáriz in Cassandro. Seasoned documentarian Roger Ross Williams, who profiled Armendáriz in 2016 for the Amazon series The New Yorker Presents, makes an assured transition into narrative features with this entertaining biopic, which doubles as a gorgeous depiction of mother-son love and an exhilarating exploration of fearless queer identity in a macho environment.
While Williams (Life, Animated) and co-screenwriter David Teague (who adapted Ta-Nehesi Coates’ Between the World and Me for HBO) slightly fumble the ending, this is a film with enormous heart, vivid immersion into its culturally specific milieu and celebratory admiration for its flamboyant subject, images of whom both in and out of the ring grace the end credits. It should prove popular with both LGBTQ...
While Williams (Life, Animated) and co-screenwriter David Teague (who adapted Ta-Nehesi Coates’ Between the World and Me for HBO) slightly fumble the ending, this is a film with enormous heart, vivid immersion into its culturally specific milieu and celebratory admiration for its flamboyant subject, images of whom both in and out of the ring grace the end credits. It should prove popular with both LGBTQ...
- 1/21/2023
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
El Infierno, Chicogrande, and the other nominations of the 2011 Premio Ariel (Ariel Awards) have been announced. The 53rd Annual Premio Ariel (Ariel Awards) are presented by the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences. “The Ariel is the Mexican Academy of Film Award. It has been awarded annually since 1947. The award recognizes excellence in motion picture making, such as acting, directing and screenwriting in Mexican cinema. It is considered the most prestigious award in the Mexican movie industry.” The 53rd Annual Premio Ariel (Ariel Awards) “ceremony will take place on May 7 [, 2011] at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.” The full listing of the 2011 Premio Ariel (Ariel Awards) nominations is below
Best Picture
Abel
Chicogrande
El infierno (Hell)
Best Director
Felipe Cazals, Chicogrande
Luis Estrada, El infierno (Hell)
Diego Luna, Abel
Best Actress
Karina Gidi, Abel
Mónica del Carmen, Año bisiesto (Leap Year)
Maricel Álvarez, Biutiful
Úrsula Pruneda, Las...
Best Picture
Abel
Chicogrande
El infierno (Hell)
Best Director
Felipe Cazals, Chicogrande
Luis Estrada, El infierno (Hell)
Diego Luna, Abel
Best Actress
Karina Gidi, Abel
Mónica del Carmen, Año bisiesto (Leap Year)
Maricel Álvarez, Biutiful
Úrsula Pruneda, Las...
- 3/26/2011
- by filmbook
- Film-Book
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