'En el camino', directed by David Pablos and co-produced by Diego Luna, leads the 68th edition of the Ariel Award with 13 nominations, the highest total of this cycle, according to an announcement by the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences (AMACC) on July 8. The announcement comes in the year of the Academy's 80th anniversary, as it considers returning the ceremony to Mexico City.
The film portrays a romance between a truck driver and a young man on the Mexico-United States border, a setting with direct resonance for the binational community. Close behind in nominations are 'Aún es de noche en Caracas', by Venezuelan director Mariana Rondón (a Mexico-Venezuela co-production with nine nominations), and 'El diablo fuma (y guarda las cabezas de los cerillos quemados en la misma caja)', by Ernesto Martínez Bucio, with eight. The ceremony will take place on October 3, broadcast on Mexican public channels, HBO and TNT, Proceso reported.
'En el camino' competes in the categories of Best Picture, Direction (David Pablos) and Actor (Osvaldo Sánchez). It also received nominations in Cinematography (Ximena Amann), Editing (Jonathan Pellicer), Production Design (Belén Estrada), Costume Design (Felipe Criado), Makeup (Adam Zoller), Original Score (Andrea Balency-Bearn), Sound and Visual Effects (Jorge Palma Bermúdez). In total, 151 films were entered this year: 67 features, 84 shorts and 10 Ibero-American titles. The Ariel de Oro will be presented to documentary filmmaker Demetrio Bilbatúa and actress Rosita Arenas.
In the lead-up to the ceremony, AMACC will organize the free screening series 'Rumbo al Ariel 2026' across cities throughout the country, with support from PROCINECDMX and IMSS. AMACC president Daniel Hidalgo emphasized that the quality of Mexican cinema continues to rise and that the Academy is working to establish a board of trustees to strengthen its activities.
This article was drafted with artificial intelligence assistance from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.