EVERYTHING ELSE IS NOISE to Make North American, U.S. Premieres at TIFF, NYFF
The deadpan comedy stars Teresita Sánchez and Luisa Pardo and unfolds inside a Mexico City apartment.
Nicolás Pereda's EVERYTHING ELSE IS NOISE (Lo demás es ruido) will make its North American premiere in the Wavelengths section of the 51st Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), followed by its U.S. premiere in the Main Slate of the 64th New York Film Festival (NYFF). The film previously had its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival, where Beatrice Loayza of The New York Times called it 'one of the finest films at the festival.'
Both a distillation of nearly two decades of filmmaking and an unusually playful new direction, Pereda's latest feature marks a significant moment in the career of one of Mexican cinema's most prolific and singular contemporary voices.
A sharply observed deadpan comedy set largely within a Mexico City apartment, the story follows Rosa, a middle-aged contemporary Music Composer who secretly agrees to shoot her first television interview at the home of her colleague Tere. What should be a routine profile by a visiting TV crew quickly goes off the rails. Disrupted by power outages, a barking dog, and the sudden arrival of Tere's daughter Luisa, the interview gives way to family anecdotes, impromptu musical performances, and old rivalries.
As the interview unravels, conversations about music, family, work, and ambition take its place. What begins as a portrait of one artist gradually becomes something richer and funnier, revealing the expectations and biases women encounter in creative fields and the different ways they learn to navigate them. The interruptions and digressions that frustrate the television crew ultimately prove more revealing than the interview itself.
Reuniting with his longtime troupe of collaborators—including Teresita Sánchez, Luisa Pardo, Lázaro G. Rodríguez, and Francisco Barreiro—Pereda employs static compositions, extended takes, and an economy of means to move effortlessly between naturalism, deadpan humor, and subtle absurdity. Street noise, barking dogs, family dynamics, and professional egos all become part of the film's playful exploration of creativity and artistic prestige—and of who gets taken seriously as an artist.
Beyond its situational humor, Everything Else Is Noise explores how social expectations and gender dynamics shape the lives of women artists across generations. A precise and incisive study of the fragility of prestige and the strength of quiet resistance, the film distills many of the hallmarks of Pereda's cinema—his fluid interplay between performance and everyday life, understated humor, minimalist form, and recurring ensemble of actors—into one of his funniest and most immediately engaging works to date.
The film's back-to-back premieres at TIFF and NYFF offer a timely opportunity to celebrate not only an exceptional new film, but the remarkable body of work and sustained inventiveness that have earned Pereda a singular place in contemporary cinema.
TIFF Screenings
Thursday, September 10, 8:30pm at TIFF Lightbox — North American Premiere
Friday, September 11, 12:15pm at Scotiabank Theatre Toronto — P&I
Friday, September 18, 10pm at TIFF Lightbox
NYFF Screenings
Saturday, September 26, 4:30pm at Walter Reade Theater — U.S. Premiere
Sunday, September 27, 9:30pm at Francesca Beale Theater
Monday, October 5, 1pm at Francesca Beale Theater
P&I Screening (TBA)
About the Film
EVERYTHING ELSE IS NOISE. Lo demás es ruido. Mexico/Germany/Canada, 2026, 70 min. In Spanish with English subtitles. Directed by Nicolás Pereda. Written by Juan Francisco Maldonado and Nicolás Pereda. Produced by: Catalina Pereda; Cinematography: Nicolás Pereda; Sound Postproduction: Guido Berenblum, Gerardo Kalmar; Image Postproduction: Nicolás Pereda; Music: Violeta García. Cast: Teresita Sánchez, Rosa Estela Juárez Vargas, Luisa Pardo, Lázaro G. Rodríguez, Francisco Barreiro, José Rodríguez López. A Pragda release.
About the Director
Nicolás Pereda (1982) explores the everyday through fractured and elliptical narratives that employ both fiction and documentary tools. He frequently collaborates with the theater collective Lagartijas tiradas al sol and actress Teresita Sánchez. His work has been the subject of more than 30 retrospectives and has screened at most major international film festivals—Cannes, Berlinale, Venice, Locarno, New York, and Toronto—as well as in museums such as the Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris, the Guggenheim, and MoMA in New York. In 2010, he received the Orizzonti Award at the Venice Film Festival.
