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“This Was an Opportunity to Revisit My Family”: Mayra Hermosillo Debuts VAINILLA at the 23rd FICM

Alan Rodríguez

A press conference was held before the premiere of Vainilla at the 23rd Morelia International Film Festival (FICM). The screening was attended by the film's director, Mayra Hermosillo, who was joined by producers Andrea Porras Madero and Stacy Perskie and actresses Aurora Dávila, María Castella, Paloma Petra, Natalia Plascencia, and Rosy Rojas.

Vainilla, the first feature film by Hermosillo, was part of the 10th edition of Impulso Morelia in 2024 and was screened at the Giornate degli Autore, a parallel section of this year's Venice Film Festival.

Mayra Hermosillo is originally from Torreón and has worked as a theater, film, and television actress. This time she talked about her directorial debut and what led her to create this project: “I think what has worked for me in life is not thinking about things too much, because the things I've thought about a lot I never do. What has helped me leap is knowing that I won't be doing it alone.”

The film tells the story of a family in the late 1980s, made up of seven women from different generations and with different ideologies, who are fighting to save the house they live in and are about to lose due to an outstanding debt. The story is told through the eyes of the youngest daughter, as she embarks on a journey of self-discovery that impacts the rest of the family.

“It was an opportunity to revisit my family, to not stick with the idea I had of each of them [...]. That's how I started this journey with my mom. I think my grandmother, my great-grandmother, my aunt, and my nanny are having a lot of fun in heaven watching all the chaos in this movie,” shared the director.

Actress Paloma Petra, also a producer of the film, spoke about her experience playing the Georgina character and the importance of the story being set in northern Mexico: “In addition to representing three-dimensional female characters in film, one of the things that moves me the most is that they are characters from other parts of the country. I really appreciate that with Vainilla we can generate these conversations from different places.”

The cast and part of the crew highlighted the filming process and Mayra's work in her first experience as a director: “The importance of being directed by an actress is inspiring because she has a very human perspective,” said María Castella.

Before ending the press conference, the director shared an anecdote about when she presented her film in Venice and had the opportunity to talk with Guillermo del Toro, whom she admires and considers her “creative father.”