Mexican-American filmmaker Merced Elizondo discusses his award-winning short film The Mourning Of, which, after officially qualifying for the 2026 Academy Awards, marks a major milestone in its journey through international festivals.
The film follows Maribel, a young woman who is coping with the loss of her mother by secretly attending the funerals of strangers. As she seeks solace through the grief of others, her fragile coping mechanism begins to unravel, forcing her to confront absence, memory, and reconciliation.
Quietly devastating yet deeply human, The Mourning Of is both a meditation on the rituals of grief and a study of how families carry pain across generations. “They say the only thing worse than a funeral is a funeral that no one goes to,” Elizondo reflects. “When people die, their loved ones want their memory to feel loved and missed.”
More than just a moving story, The Mourning Of stands out as a rare Oscar-qualifying short that is both Latino-led and independently produced in the United States, shot entirely in Texas by members of the Latino community. Elizondo’s creative team includes cinematographer Matheus Bastos, composer René G. Boscio, sound designer Javier Umpierrez, production designer Jonathan Rudak, editor Jonathan Cuartas, and actors Natalia Villegas and Julio César Cedillo (Sicario, Narcos: Mexico, Cowboys & Aliens).
At a time when Latino representation remains scarce in major awards campaigns, its ascent into Oscar contention represents a meaningful shift. “It’s a story rooted in cultural specificity,” Elizondo says, “but it resonates with anyone who’s ever experienced loss or the unspoken complexities of family.”
A Ryan Murphy Half Initiative Directing Fellow and New Narratives Filmmaker Grant recipient through Warner Bros. Discovery, Elizondo is known for intimate, character-driven storytelling. His previous short, Manos de Oro, screened at Oscar-qualifying festivals including HollyShorts, LA Shorts, and LALIFF, winning Best Short Film at Tomorrow’s Filmmakers Today.
The idea for The Mourning Of came during a drive from Mexico to Texas with his grandmother. “She told me about these Mexican women, draped in black, who would attend the funerals of strangers […] essentially professional mourners,” Elizondo recalls. “I thought, that’s fascinating. I’d never heard of anything like it.”
He was drawn less to the ritual than to the psychology behind it. “I wanted to focus on someone who wasn’t grieving for money or tradition,” he explains, “but someone who felt compelled to grieve because she didn’t know how else to exist.”
In Maribel, played with haunting precision by Natalia Villegas, Elizondo saw a reflection of his own questions about loss. He describes her as “a grief empathy vampire”, a woman unable to move beyond mourning, feeding off the sadness of others. He likens her to Breaking Bad’s Walter White: “Both characters face a crisis of identity and turn to morally questionable acts with good intentions. Then, they get addicted to the very thing that’s destroying them.”
Finding Villegas came after weeks of uncertainty. “I was down to the wire, auditioning so many people,” Elizondo says. “Then I found her on Instagram. She had done a grocery store commercial, but I just liked her face [and] it belonged on the big screen.” Her dedication, he adds, helped define the film. “Through her, Maribel came alive. She even wrote a letter to Maribel’s dead mother while in character.”
Elizondo hints that The Mourning Of is just the beginning. “The short starts months into Maribel’s addiction,” he says. “But the feature version begins at her mother’s funeral, at the very start of her descent.” He envisions it as a psychological thriller exploring how grief can warp identity and morality.
Having recently lost both grandparents, Elizondo admits these themes are deeply personal. “I hold space for grief and death because they terrify me,” he says quietly. “But art is how I make sense of them.”
Since its premiere, The Mourning Of has screened at major festivals worldwide, including the Festival Internacional de Cine en Guadalajara (FICG), Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF), Dallas International Film Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival, and El Paso Film Festival. It was also shortlisted for the Young Director Award at Cannes Lions and earned its Oscar qualification after winning Best Live Action Short at the 2024 St. Louis International Film Festival.
Even amid awards season, Elizondo is developing his first feature film, The Thing About Elephants. “It’s about a pair of childhood sweethearts, Oscar and Nancy, who met when they were six and are now in their thirties,” he explains. “It asks: can I still be me without ‘we’? What happens when love becomes identity?”
The title refers to “The Elephant in the Room”; those unspoken truths that hold relationships together until they don’t.
For Elizondo, The Mourning Of’s Oscar journey is both exhilarating and humbling. “I never thought we’d be here nearly a year after St. Louis,” he says. “You don’t make films for awards; you do it to release something from inside you. For me, it’s purging.”
Still, the recognition carries weight. “I’m a Latino-American director from Texas, and you never really let yourself dream that big,” he says. “We’re one of only a handful of Latino-made short films qualifying worldwide, and certainly the only one from Texas.”
His pride isn’t rooted in prestige, but in proof. “I didn’t go to film school. I didn’t move to LA or New York. I started my career right here in Texas. That’s what I want people to see; it can happen anywhere.”
As The Mourning Of moves through its Oscar campaign, Elizondo remains focused on the larger purpose behind it. “If this film does anything,” he says, “I hope it shows that grief isn’t something to escape, it’s something to understand. It connects us.”
For Elizondo and his team, the months ahead promise both anticipation and celebration. The Mourning Of stands not only as a personal expression of loss and healing, but also as a triumph of community-driven, independent filmmaking. Its success signals a growing recognition of Latino voices emerging from outside Hollywood’s traditional centres of power.
Whether or not the film advances to the shortlist, The Mourning Of has already achieved something rare: placing a Texas-made, Latino-led story on the global awards stage. As awards season gathers momentum, all eyes will be on Elizondo’s moving meditation on grief and belonging.
