Two months after the controversy surrounding the premiere of ‘Roma,’ when two of Mexico’s most successful movie theater chains, Cinépolis and Cinemex , refused to distribute the Mexican film due to a conflict of interest.
The critically acclaimed movie by Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón will be part of a special cinema series featuring the nominees for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The films will be screened at 60 theaters in 14 cities .
Said series will be available from 14 to 24 February , when the Academy Awards ceremony is set to take place.
At the end of November , the film, which tells the story of a domestic worker who lives with a Mexican upper middle-class family , was rejected by commercial movie theater chains in Mexico after Netflix refused to adjust its premiere of ‘Roma’ to their traditional window of exhibition.
In Mexico, tradition dictates that movies are to screened at least three months before the film material is distributed through other media platforms. However, Netflix gave movie theaters a span of only three weeks before the film’s premiere on the streaming platform. Thus, the movie was mostly screened in independent movie theaters.
The Cinemex movie theater chain offers a yearly cinema series to give audiences an opportunity to watch films that have been nominated for the Academy Awards. This year, Cinemex will rescreen “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “A Star Is Born,” among others.
‘ Roma ’ will be screened in Mexico City, Cancún, Cuernavaca, Guadalajara, León, Mérida, and Monterrey, as well as in Puebla, Saltillo, Tijuana, Toluca, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, and Villahermosa .
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