Writer/director Jonás Cuarón’s surreal Bronx-set immigrant story “Campeón Gabacho” won the Audience Award at SXSW earlier this year. Before it heads to Beyond Fest in Los Angeles on September 30, IndieWire exclusively announces that Janus Films has acquired the movie for North American theatrical release in early 2027.
In the film, Mexican actor/dancer/singer Juan Daniel García Treviño plays a Mexican migrant who winds up as an amateur local boxing champion in a Latino barrio in a soundstage-recreated Jackson Heights. It also stars Leslie Grace, Rubén Blades, Eddie Marsan, Rosario Dawson, Cheech Marin, Marvin Jones III, Carlos Carrasco, and Dolores Heredia. It was produced by Jonás Cuarón, Gabriela Rodríguez, Alfonso Cuarón, and Nicolás Celis.
“I’m thrilled that Campeón Gabacho is having its U.S. release with Janus Films, “ said director Jonás Cuarón, who is the son and collaborator of Oscar-winning filmmaker Alfonso, in a statement. “At its heart, the film is about crossing borders, geographical, but also those of language, culture and identity. Janus Films has an extraordinary history of championing films that transcend those borders, and I can’t think of a better home to bring Liborio’s story to audiences across the country.”
The deal was negotiated between Janus Films and WME on behalf of the filmmakers. “Campeón Gabacho” also plays the Newport Beach Film Festival on October 19.
As I wrote in my SXSW review, “Mexican filmmaker Jonás Cuarón, now on his fourth feature, has settled into an ecstatic style that feels naturally torn from his father’s cloth, but with a signature stamp of his own on border-crossing stories.”
Janus Films had multiple successful arthouse runs in theaters this year, from the family drama “Blue Heron” to the Japanese epic “The Samurai and the Prisoner.” The company will also release Paul Thomas Anderson’s 35mm concert capture “Cameron Winter at Carnegie Hall,” centered on the Geese frontman, after it plays the New York Film Festival.
More on the film from the distributor: “In a Bronx barrio, an undocumented Mexican immigrant loses his job and nearly his life as bad luck keeps knocking him down. But when he finds himself in a boxing ring, he learns that he can roll with the punches and come out with something — and someone — worth fighting for. Winner of the SXSW Audience Award, director Jonás Cuarón’s funny, defiantly joyful film presents the American dream as belonging to anyone who refuses to let it go. Featuring a magnetic lead performance from Juan Daniel García Treviño, one of Mexico’s most exciting young actors, and a soundtrack of wall-to-wall original songs, ‘Campeón Gabacho’ is an underdog story for a city and country of people from somewhere else.”
The film was shepherded by Esperanto Filmoj, a film and TV production company founded by Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón and led by Oscar-nominated producer Gabriela Rodríguez. The company is currently developing “Ravenloft,” a Dungeons & Dragons series for Netflix, and “Wolf’s Belly,” a new feature based on John August’s graphic novel version of “Little Red Riding Hood” for Sony Pictures.
