Film from Mauricio Chernovetzky and Alexander Ioshpe Continues Festival Run After Winning the Audience Award at the 2025 Austin Film Festival
MEXICO CITY, April 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Sacrificios, the Mexican psychological horror thriller from writer/director Mauricio Chernovetzky and writer Alexander Ioshpe, will make its Latin American premiere in Brazil at the 22nd edition of Fantaspoa, the largest festival dedicated to fantastic genre cinema in Latin America. The film previously premiered at the 2025 Austin Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award in the Dark Matters category.
Produced by Balthus Films, Sacrificios is a haunting and emotionally charged exploration of grief, guilt, and the lengths a parent may go to reverse an unimaginable loss. It stars Jorge A. Jimenez (Narcos, The Black Demon), Frida Astrid, Noé Hernández (Bardo, Bel Canto), Siddhartha Tonalli, and Costanza Andrade.
The film follows Juan, a father shattered by the tragic death of his young son. Consumed by grief and guilt, he escapes into the vastness of the open sea, seeking refuge from a loss that feels impossible to endure. What begins as an act of despair transforms into something far more mysterious when Juan experiences a supernatural encounter that appears to return his son to him from the waves. But the miracle carries a devastating cost: to keep his child alive, Juan must sacrifice his own blood.
“Sacrificios is a deeply personal film,” said Mauricio Chernovetzky. “It is inspired by and dedicated to our fathers. As we became increasingly aware of all the sacrifices they’ve made for us, along with the emotional toll it took on them — the grief, the silence, the weight they carried alone — we asked ourselves: Is there a limit to how much a father would be willing to sacrifice? This film is a response to that question. It is a deeply personal vision inspired by this theme.”
Over the course of its 92-minute journey, Sacrificios draws viewers into a dark psychological landscape where grief, faith, redemption, and obsession collide, blurring the line between miracle and madness.
“Being able to watch Sacrificios with a live audience and see them react with such emotion was an unexpected and powerful experience,” said Alexander Ioshpe. “People stood in the wings waiting to ask questions, sharing their own stories of grief and loss. We always wanted to make a film like the ones that inspired us, films that linger, that burrow deep, like “Jacob’s Ladder” and “The Witch” — films that become personal to others because they are personal to us, and I feel we have succeeded in doing that.”
The original score was composed by Jason Carmer, a Grammy-winning audio engineer, composer, and music producer who previously collaborated with Chernovetzky on several projects.
The film’s producers include Ernesto Martínez Arévalo, Jessica Villegas Lattuada, Mauricio Chernovetzky, and Alexander Ioshpe, with Jairo Sifuentes serving as co-producer, and Zig Kellner as executive producer. Cinematography is by Grzegorz Bartoszewicz, with production design by Adelle Achar.
Fantaspoa is a major international platform for horror, fantasy, and science fiction cinema. The festival’s audience is known for its passion for bold and innovative genre storytelling, making it an ideal venue for the Latin American debut of Sacrificios.
About Sacrificios
Sacrificios is a Mexican psychological horror thriller that explores the devastating depths of grief and the haunting limits of sacrifice. When a grieving father miraculously retrieves his young son from the sea after a tragic death, he discovers that preserving the miracle demands an unimaginable price. The film blends psychological horror with a deeply personal meditation on loss, faith, and redemption.
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SOURCE Balthus Films
