Victoria Franco’s debut feature “Twelve Moons” bowed Saturday in Tribeca’s International Narrative Competition, drawing a full house to Village East after its world-premiere screening on 7 June. The 97-minute Mexican drama follows Sofía, a 40-year-old architect whose infertility struggle and mounting addictions send her spiralling through Mexico City’s night streets. Festival programmer Frédéric Boyer hails the film as “a haunting portrait of struggle, grief, longing and self-destruction,” praising Ana de la Reguera’s lead performance for its “raw physicality and emotional depth.”
Franco wrote, directed and produced the picture alongside her brother, Cannes-laureate Michel Franco and regular collaborators Eréndira Núñez Larios and Yardena Maimon. The filmmaker arrives at Tribeca after shorts Reconciliados (2014) and Borde (2017) and a co-directing credit on Through the Eyes with Michel, experience she says helped her “calibrate intimacy on a larger canvas.” Cinematographer Sergio Armstrong’s roving handheld work and composer Rodrigo M.T.’s minimalist score amplify Sofía’s increasingly disoriented state, elements singled out in early critic round-ups from Tangent Zine and The Rolling Tape.
International sales are handled by The Match Factory, which unveiled a first-look clip and poster across Instagram and X three days before the premiere, sparking strong festival-market chatter. U.S. buyers were invited to a private industry screening Monday, and representatives from Neon, A24 and Mubi were spotted entering the session, according to trade observers posted outside AMC 19th Street. Although distribution deals have yet to close, festival listings already flag “award screenings” for the title on 15 June, prompting speculation that jurors view it as a front-runner.
Twelve Moons is part of a robust Latin-American slate at this year’s festival, a push highlighted by Cinema Tropical and Hola! USA as evidence of increasing studio interest in Spanish-language storytelling. Tribeca organisers note that 40 percent of 2025’s feature selections are directed by women, a record they credit to a jury chaired by Mira Sorvino and Kyle MacLachlan that was tasked with championing fresh voices.
Variety’s pre-festival interview quoted Franco describing the lunar metaphor in her title as “a way to measure time by the body rather than the clock,” an idea she hopes will resonate with viewers beyond the film’s fertility storyline. Audience response at the premiere suggested the connection landed: a two-minute standing ovation followed the Q&A, where Franco thanked “every woman who has felt out of sync with the world” for inspiring the film.
