MICKEY to Make New York Premiere at NewFest

Mickey, the acclaimed new feature documentary by award-winning trans Mexican filmmaker Dano García, will have its New York premiere at the 38th NewFest: The New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival, running October 15–25 in New York City.

Following its world premiere at the 2026 SXSW Film Festival, where it won the Global Audience Award, the film has enjoyed a successful international festival run, with screenings at BlackStar, Houston Cinema Arts, and Guadalajara, among others. The award marks García's second Global Audience Award at SXSW, following the recognition of their debut feature, Kings of Nowhere.

Produced by Joceline Hernández, Indira Cato, Alejandra Guevara, and Christian Giraud, this Phototaxia Pictures production—filmed over ten years—centers on Mickey Cundapí (she/her), known artistically as Mis$ Mickey, a trans multidisciplinary artist who, alongside García, uses play and performance to reimagine the past and inhabit the present. Over the past decade, Mickey has navigated her transition within the conservative context of Mazatlán, a city known for its vibrant carnival traditions yet marked by persistent homophobia and transphobia.

Mickey and García first met at age 14 as students at the same Catholic school. Even then, Mickey's makeup and performances during mass scandalized priests. In a deeply collaborative process, the two revisited archival material from their childhood friendship, reconstructing a shared journey of gender transition and resilience while creating space for broader queer community support through the film itself.

Drawing from youthful footage, artistic reenactments, and intimate encounters, Mickey moves between tenderness and rage, transforming memory into an act of liberation. The film approaches the past not as fixed, but as fluid—a space for reimagining selfhood beyond punishment or shame.

With Mickey, García delivers a formally daring and emotionally intimate work shaped by sustained collaboration. Challenging cinematic conventions and expanding the language of trans representation, the film asserts trans cinema as both aesthetic innovation and political transformation.

NewFest Screenings

Wednesday, October 21, 6:45pm at Nitehawk Prospect Park — In-Person New York Premiere

Thursday, October 15 - Friday, October 30 — Virtual Screening

About the Film

MICKEY. Mexico, 2026, 75 min. Directed by Dano García; Producers: Dano García, Indira Cato, Joceline Hernández, Alejandra Guevara Castillo, Christian Giraud; Executive Producer: Aurora Sofía Galindo Castro; Production Companies: Venado Films, in coproduction with Phototaxia Pictures and Estudio Errante; Screenwriters: Dano García, Tonatiuh Israel; Cinematographer: Diego Tenorio; Editor: Tonatiuh Israel; Sound: Christian Giraud; Music: Pablo Horn. Cast: Mis$ Mickey, Jesse Sakeri López, Arturo Cundapí Bustamante, Angélica María.

About the Director

Dano García (they/them) is a multi-award-winning documentary filmmaker who studied at the National Film and Television School (NFTS) in London and ENAC (formerly CUEC) at UNAM in Mexico City. Their debut feature, Kings of Nowhere (2015), won the Global Audience Award at SXSW, the Grand Jury Award at Full Frame, the Golden Eye at the Zurich Film Festival, and Best Documentary at Morelia, among other honors. The film screened at Sheffield Doc/Fest and MoMA's Doc Fortnight, received a Cinema Eye Honors nomination, won the Cinema Tropical Award for Best Documentary Director, and was named one of the year's best films by Sight & Sound. In 2016, they directed Unsilenced, a New York Times Op-Doc about a Mexican activist murdered on-air while hosting a radio show for displaced residents.