Besides the Official Selection, the Guanajuato International Film Festival will have three Gala Event showings in which three international films will be shown for the first time in Mexico. On this occasion, we’ll see the stories of three artists, each working in a different medium, and the demons that lead to the work they have given to the world, as well as the Price they had to pay in their personal lives to get to who they became in the public eye (in two out of these three cases, the artists in question are still alive).
Love & Mercy: Tells the story of Brian Wilson, the leader and musical genius behind the famous 1960’s band the Beach Boys. Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine) plays him during that fruitful era when the pressures of being a musical genius in the eyes of the public and his abusive father lead to a psychotic break. John Cusack (High Fidelity) plays him in the 1980’s, when he begins a relationship with Melinda LedBetter (Elizabeth Banks) who may be able to save him from his demons. Bill Pohland, Academy-Award nominated producer of The Tree of Life, directs his first film in 25 years with this exploration of what happens to a sensitive soul when its pressured by the outside world.
Life: Anton Corbijn, director of Control, The American and 
A Most Wanted Man (he was given a tribute at last year’s GIFF, where two of his movies were shown), returns to introduce us to his latest feature film. Dennis Stock (Robert Pattinson) in a photographer for Life Magazine who, at a party, meets a then mostly unknown James Dean (Dane DeHaan), who at the time was a shy actor dealing with the stress of promoting himself. They form a friendship that leads to one of the most famous photographs of the 20th Century, the photograph that turned this young actor (who died at the age of 24 in a car accident) into the legend we know today.
Black Dog, Red Dog: Acclaimed actor James Franco directs along with nine other people (including Mexicans Pedro Gómez Millán y Adriana Cepeda) this film where he plays poet Stephen Dobyns, who began as a journalist. These people explore his inspirations, his women and what drove him to write poetry. Olivia Wilde, Chloe Sevigny, Whoopi Goldberg and Logan Marshall-Green co-star.
