UK film spotlight at International Festival Cervantino

The UK is Guest Country of Honour at this year’s Festival Internacional Cervantino (FIC): one of the biggest and most important cultural events in Latin America, held in Guanajuato, Mexico between 10-26 October 2025.

To celebrate this special moment - and 200 years of diplomatic relations between the UK and Mexico - the British Council is presenting an expansive artistic and academic programme designed to encourage fresh thinking, cultural exchange, and creative partnerships between both countries.

A key element of the programme is a focus on UK cinema, developed in collaboration with the University of Guanajuato Cine Club and Bristol's Cinema Rediscovered festival.

From ground-breaking animations that showcase the country’s incredible homegrown talent, to landmark films that depict the great British romance in all its charm, as well as era-defining films from 1980’s Britain, Guanajuato's breathtaking historical open air spaces, museums and university auditoriums will lend themselves to celebrating the rich and vibrant landscape of UK cinema.

Together, these films present a striking mosaic of British cinema’s capacity to tell challenging, emotionally-charged, and enduring stories. Whether imagining an impending nuclear apocalypse or political revolution, exploring class and representation, or celebrating love in all its forms - these films remind us that the best storytelling confronts the complexities of the world around us - revealing powerful themes that transcend borders and stand the test of time.

UK Film Programmes at International Festival Cervantino

Against the Grain: 1980's British Cinema

Touring internationally for the first time, Against the Grain: 1980s British Cinema, is a powerful season of influential, era-defining independent films from the 1980s, curated by and presented in partnership with the brilliant Cinema Rediscovered (produced by Watershed in Bristol) - the UK’s leading festival dedicated to newly restored, rare, and rediscovered cinema.

In the early 1980s, writer Colin Welland famously declared “The Brits are coming” when accepting the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Chariots of Fire. However, the British never arrived in the way that was expected; instead, the industry and audiences experienced a dramatic decline. Yet, amid these turbulent times and the political and social upheaval of Thatcherism, seeds of renewal appeared within the independent film community with the launch of Channel 4, the rise of the dissident distributor and producer Palace Pictures, and the emergence of new cinematic voices. This showcase presents some of those ambitious and now influential films and filmmakers who redefined British independent cinema and swam against the tide during the decade. - Mark Cosgrove, founder of Cinema Rediscovered and curator of Against the Grain

Included are seminal works from the leading lights of UK cinema such as Sally Potter (The Gold Diggers), Julian Temple (Absolute Beginners), Peter Greenaway (A Zed and Two Noughts) and Derek Jarman (The Angelic Conversation); a 40th anniversary restoration of the iconic My Beautiful Laundrette (Stephen Frears); John Akomfrah’s poetic 1986 Black Audio Film Collective documentary about race, riots and resistance Handsworth Songs. This programme first screened at the Cinema Rediscovered festival and partner cinemas across the UK in July 2025.

Great British Animation

In a decade-spanning tribute to the great tradition of British animation, we’ve selected compelling, landmark works, many of which are renowned literary adaptations. Exploring deep and emotive themes of existence and kinship, and stories rendered in vivid colour and imagination, these films tell vital and important stories about who we are - and our connection to one another.

The programme includes the UK’s earliest full-length animated features Animal Farm (Joy Batchelor, John Halas,1954); a gripping adventure of friendship and resilience in Kensuke’s Kingdom (Neil Boyle, Kirk Hendry, 2023) based on Michael Morpurgo’s beloved novel and a trio of award-winning short animations. Building on a dystopian theme, tales of nuclear menace, displacement and alienation reveal the darker aspects of the British imagination in When the Wind Blows (Jimmy T. Murakami,1986), Watership Down (Martin Rosen,1978), and Pink Floyd: The Wall (Alan Parker, 1982).

British Romantics

A sparky, sparkling selection of films from the titans of British cinema - including Ken Loach, Stephen Frears and Mike Newell - alongside sharp, witty new voices. British Romantics celebrates the singular way British filmmakers capture that age-old mystery: love. From star-crossed lovers on the streets of Glasgow to intimate entanglements in London bedrooms, these yearning romances reveal how the British often blend the political with the personal, or bring a uniquely English froth and charm to affairs of the heart.

Featuring Ken Loach’s moving 2004 drama Ae Fond Kiss, where love blossoms across cultural and religious divides, to Raine Allen-Miller’s Rye Lane (2023), a vibrant, modern spin on the rom-com, Mike Newell’s age-old classic romp Four Weddings and a Funeral and Clio Barnard’s heartfelt, Bradford-set Ali and Ava, this programme proves one thing: no one does romance quite like the Brits. Also screening as part of both British Romantics and Against the Grain: 1980s British Cinema, is the 40th Anniversary restoration of My Beautiful Laundrette (Stephen Frears, 1985).

UK cinema curator and founder of Cinema Rediscovered, Mark Cosgrove will be in attendance at International Festival Cervantino to introduce several Against the Grain screenings and other films across the UK programme and we’ll be following the news on @festivalcervantino #53FIC #CulturaUG