top of page

Subscribe to our newsletter

Stay updated with the latest from our blog

Sonora Film Festival 2026: What Its First Edition Left Behind

Writer: Alejandro Mendivil
Alejandro Mendivil
4d
7 min read

The Sonora Film Festival (Festival de Cine de Sonora) held its first edition from October 7 to 11, 2026, in Hermosillo, the capital of the Mexican state of Sonora, just south of Arizona. The week brought together screenings, workshops, conversations and a competition dedicated to short films made in the state.

DVL Film House took part as co-organizer and sponsor. The festival grew out of conversations between Hermosillo-born filmmaker José Esteban Pavlovich, its creative director, and Alejandro Mendívil, founder of DVL Film House and the festival's general director. This recap is written from that position: not as outside observers, but as part of the team behind it.

At a glance

  • The Sonora Film Festival is a new film festival based in Hermosillo, organized by Sonoran filmmakers and production companies with institutional support and partners in Arizona.

  • Its first edition combined a contemporary cinema showcase, free workshops, a master class, panel conversations and the Sonoran Short Film Competition.

  • The documentary Capítulo 4. Por debajo del agua, by Zyanya López Arámburo, won the competition.

  • A second edition is confirmed for 2027.

Organizers and guests on stage at the Sonora Film Festival 2026, in front of the screen showing the festival logo

What Is the Sonora Film Festival?

The Sonora Film Festival is an annual film event based in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. It exists to screen films that rarely reach commercial theaters, to support new voices through the Sonoran Short Film Competition, and to create space for training and dialogue between filmmakers, students, industry professionals and audiences.

The idea came from a shared concern: northern Mexico has few festivals and few exhibition circuits. The answer was a festival made by filmmakers, one that brought several Sonoran production companies together to organize it and to fund the prize for short filmmakers.

Programming spread across the city: Cineteca Sonora, the Sociedad Sonorense de Historia, the University of Sonora's arts center auditorium, Foro Bellas Artes, Black Corp Foro and the Casa de la Cultura de Sonora.

What Reached the Screen?

An opening rooted in Sonoran memory

The festival opened at the Sociedad Sonorense de Historia with the world premiere of Señor Apache, Luis Fernando Pacheco's first documentary feature. The film reconstructs the story of Los Apson, the rock and roll band from Agua Prieta, a town on the Arizona border, and the journey its members made from Sonora to Mexico City in the 1960s. Opening with that story set the tone: cinema as a way to recover a region's cultural memory and bring it to new audiences.

The Contemporary Cinema Showcase

The showcase brought together recent films, mostly first or second features, that have traveled through Mexican and international festivals. Every screening was accompanied by its director, turning each one into a conversation.

  • Boca Vieja, by Yovegami Ascona Mora: a portrait of a coastal village in southern Mexico that retreats every rainy season to let nature take its place, and always returns.

  • Un techo sin cielo (A Skyless Roof), by Diego Hernández: an intimate film about fatigue, insomnia and memory, made in Tijuana.

  • Oca, by Karla Badillo: a young nun's pilgrimage in search of an archbishop, produced in part by Hermosillo-born producer María José Córdova.

  • Vainilla, by Mayra Hermosillo: a girl finding her place in a household of women fighting to keep their home.

  • En el camino, by David Pablos: a road movie across northern Mexico between a young drifter and a lonely trucker.

  • Si no ardemos, cómo iluminar la noche (If We Don't Burn, How Do We Light Up the Night), by Kim Torres: a teenager who uncovers a dark secret hidden in the forest of her new village.

Films for children

The program included a morning screening for young audiences, featuring a selection from Ambulantito, the children's section of Mexico's Ambulante documentary tour. Building audiences starts there too.

What Happened Outside the Theater?

The festival is built on an idea it states plainly: a film doesn't end when the screening does. Much of the program took place away from the screen.

Workshops

La Caja Actoral, led by Raúl Briones and Patricia Ortiz, was a hands-on acting lab that turned gestures, objects, testimonies and personal stories into performance material. No prior acting experience was required.

Misterios del proceso cinematográfico (Mysteries of the Filmmaking Process), led by filmmaker Natalia García Agraz, moved through screenwriting, camera, staging and editing, treating instinct and chance as tools as valid as structure.

Both workshops were free. Participants were selected for motivation and availability, not résumés.

Master class and conversations

Tijuana filmmaker David Pablos gave the master class Filmar desde los márgenes: un recorrido por el cine de David Pablos (Filming from the Margins: A Journey Through the Cinema of David Pablos). His film En el camino, also in the showcase, was the top winner at this year's Ariel Awards, Mexico's national film awards, and was selected to represent Mexico in the race for the Oscar.

Among the panel conversations, Leticia Arredondo discussed the Zoom F7 project at the University of Sonora. In Filmar lo que permanece (Filming What Remains), Diego Hernández, Yovegami Ascona and Luis Fernando Pacheco, moderated by José Abril, talked about cinema as a way to preserve memory and return to one's territory.

La Churea Radio

With Noro Community Radio, the festival produced La Churea Radio, a live-streamed podcast on Sonoran cinema. Its episodes covered directing and writing, producing, acting and cinematography, with the people making films in the state.

Live recording of La Churea Radio, the Sonora Film Festival 2026 podcast on Sonoran cinema

Who Won the Sonoran Short Film Competition?

The documentary Capítulo 4. Por debajo del agua (Chapter 4. Beneath the Water), directed by Zyanya López Arámburo of Ciudad Obregón and produced by Denise Durón of Hermosillo, won the first Sonoran Short Film Competition. The film addresses the deportation of members of the Yaqui people from Sonora to the Yucatán Peninsula during the Porfirio Díaz era.

The director has said she was driven by how little this chapter of history is known, and that historical research was the foundation of the film, drawing on the work of historian Raquel Padilla and on painting references for its visual approach.

The Official Selection screened on closing night at the Sociedad Sonorense de Historia. The jury included Estrella Araiza, general director of the Guadalajara International Film Festival; filmmaker Natalia García Agraz; and festival programmer Sébastien Blayac.

The award has two parts. The first is the official statuette: a churea, the Sonoran name for the roadrunner that serves as the festival's emblem, hand-carved from ironwood (palo fierro), a desert hardwood native to the region. The second is an in-kind grant for the production and post-production of the winner's next project, contributed by Sonoran production companies.

Who Made the First Edition Possible?

The festival rested on a broad network. Cineteca Sonora, the Sonoran Institute of Culture (ISC), the Government of the State of Sonora and the University of Sonora took part. From across the border, Film Tucson, the Southern Arizona Film Society and the Nogales International Film Fest joined as partners.

Sonoran production companies including Julian Film, La Tuerca, Jacalito and DVL Film House came on board, along with media partners Noro, Telemax and Radio Sonora, and local businesses in bacanora, food, hospitality and culture.

That mix of filmmakers, institutions, binational partners and local businesses may be the most significant thing about this first edition. The festival didn't depend on a single player. For audiences and filmmakers in southern Arizona, it also opens a new point of contact with the film community just across the border.

Group photo of filmmakers, team members and partners of the Sonora Film Festival 2026 on stage

What Comes Next?

The Sonora Film Festival has confirmed a second edition for 2027. At the opening, Alejandro Mendívil noted that the project was already outgrowing its original scope, saying the team had realized the festival was becoming too small for what it was meant to hold. At the close, José Esteban Pavlovich summed up the starting point: there are audiences, there is a film culture, and there are filmmakers who want to come together around a festival.

For DVL Film House, cinema is both an industry and a territory. A festival builds audiences, connects talent with opportunity and gives filmmakers working from Sonora a place where their work is seen and discussed. A first edition, however, doesn't prove on its own that a festival will last. That is proven through continuity: audiences who come back and filmmakers who submit their work again.

Updates on the next edition will be published at sonorafilmfest.mx and on the festival's social channels, @festivaldecinesonora.

Frequently Asked Questions

When and where was the Sonora Film Festival 2026 held?

The first edition ran from October 7 to 11, 2026, in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. Venues included Cineteca Sonora, the Sociedad Sonorense de Historia, University of Sonora spaces, Foro Bellas Artes, Black Corp Foro and the Casa de la Cultura de Sonora.

Who organizes the Sonora Film Festival?

It's an initiative of Sonoran filmmakers and production companies. José Esteban Pavlovich is creative director and Alejandro Mendívil, of DVL Film House, is general director. Partners include Cineteca Sonora, the Sonoran Institute of Culture, the University of Sonora and Film Tucson.

Which film won the 2026 Sonoran Short Film Competition?

Capítulo 4. Por debajo del agua, a documentary by Zyanya López Arámburo produced by Denise Durón, about the deportation of Yaqui people to the Yucatán during the Porfirio Díaz era. The prize includes an ironwood roadrunner statuette and an in-kind grant for the winner's next project.

Will there be a second Sonora Film Festival?

Yes. The festival has confirmed a second edition for 2027 in Hermosillo. Dates, the call for entries and the program will be announced at sonorafilmfest.mx and on the festival's official social channels.

Sources

Stay updated with the latest from our blog

Comments

bottom of page