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MEXICO CITY -- Two unreleased films, Mezcal and Las Vueltas del Citrillo, shared top honors at the 48th Ariel Awards, each winning six of Mexico's top movie prizes. Ignacio Ortiz's Mezcal, inspired by Malcolm Lowry's novel Under the Volcano, captured the best film prize. It tells the story of several miserable people who find solace in mezcal at a cantina in the state of Oaxaca. State-run producer Imcine and Malayerba, a shingle run by helmers Ortiz, Carlos Carrera and Javier Patron, co-produced the picture. After Tuesday's awards ceremony in Mexico City's Palace of Fine Arts, Richard Ham, co-owner of distributor Decine, said his company has picked up Mezcal and is planning to release it in late May on fewer than 100 prints.

MEXICO CITY -- The 48th edition of the Ariel Awards, Mexico's top film prize, is shaping up to be the year of unreleased films. Of the 16 local features in the running for Ariel nominations, only seven garnered nods, the Mexican Academy of Arts and Cinematographic Sciences announced Thursday. Curiously, not one of the three pictures that nabbed double-digit nominations has a distribution deal. Leading the pack with 15 nominations, including best picture and director, is Ignacio Ortiz's Mezcal, a drama based loosely on Malcolm Lowry's novel Under the Volcano. Ortiz knows a thing or two about distribution headaches. His picture Cuento de Hadas para Dormir Cocodrilos (Bed Time Fairy Tales for Crocodiles) won best picture, director and five other prizes at the 44th Ariel Awards, yet distributors weren't biting.