Vanilla, Mayra Hermosillo’s first feature film, hits theaters on May 20, 2026. Debuted in 2025 at the Venice Film Festival in the Giornate degli Autori section, this Mexican drama-comedy centers on a family story drawn from the director’s own childhood in Torreón, Coahuila.
Vanilla
Film | 2025
In theaters: 20 May 2026
Dramedy | Runtime: 1h39
Directed by Mayra Hermosillo | Screenplay: Mayra Hermosillo
Starring Natalia Plasencia, Daniela Porras, María Castellá
Original title: Vainilla
Country: Mexico
The film centers on Roberta, eight, who grows up in a house occupied by seven women. They band together to save their home as it faces foreclosure. In this fatherless setting, the child witnesses a remarkable, often precarious, family dynamic—tense, affectionate, and padded with the daily survival tactics that bind them.
Mayra Hermosillo taps into her own past to craft this coming-of-age story. Before this feature, the filmmaker directed the short En la piel de Lucía in 2018 and had built her reputation as an actress. Vanilla extends that trajectory by placing at the heart of the narrative a community of women facing precarity, while also exploring how identity is formed when it defies traditional family molds.
The film was shot in Torreón, Mayra Hermosillo’s hometown, anchoring the story in a territory closely tied to her personal memory. After Venice, Vanilla has also circulated at several international festivals, notably Morelia, Stockholm, and Singapore.
Vanilla speaks to audiences drawn to dramedies, family sagas, and debut films where the personal becomes a doorway to bigger issues: absence, shame, love, and the role of women in shaping a home.
Trailer for Vanilla
To extend your cinema experience, check out the May movie releases, what's playing now, and our pick of this year’s dramedies.
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