Janus Films has acquired writer-director Jonás Cuarón's "Campeón Gabacho," winner of the Audience Award at SXSW earlier this year, for North American theatrical release in early 2027. IndieWire announced the deal exclusively.

The film next screens at Beyond Fest in Los Angeles on September 30, followed by the Newport Beach Film Festival on October 19.

Juan Daniel García Treviño, a Mexican actor, dancer and singer, stars as a Mexican migrant who becomes an amateur boxing champion in a Latino barrio in the Bronx — a Jackson Heights recreated on a soundstage. The cast also includes Leslie Grace, Rubén Blades, Eddie Marsan, Rosario Dawson, Cheech Marin, Marvin Jones III, Carlos Carrasco and Dolores Heredia. Jonás Cuarón, Gabriela Rodríguez, Alfonso Cuarón and Nicolás Celis produced.

"I'm thrilled that Campeón Gabacho is having its U.S. release with Janus Films," Cuarón, son and collaborator of Oscar-winning filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón, said in a statement. "At its heart, the film is about crossing borders, geographical, but also those of language, culture and identity. Janus Films has an extraordinary history of championing films that transcend those borders, and I can't think of a better home to bring Liborio's story to audiences across the country."

Janus Films negotiated the deal with WME on behalf of the filmmakers.

The distributor describes the film's premise: an undocumented Mexican immigrant in a Bronx barrio loses his job and nearly his life as bad luck keeps knocking him down. In the boxing ring, he learns to roll with the punches and find something — and someone — worth fighting for. Janus calls the film "funny, defiantly joyful," presenting "the American dream as belonging to anyone who refuses to let it go," with a soundtrack of wall-to-wall original songs and what the company calls "a magnetic lead performance" from García Treviño, "one of Mexico's most exciting young actors." The distributor's synopsis concludes: "'Campeón Gabacho' is an underdog story for a city and country of people from somewhere else."

IndieWire's SXSW review praised the director's evolution: "Mexican filmmaker Jonás Cuarón, now on his fourth feature, has settled into an ecstatic style that feels naturally torn from his father's cloth, but with a signature stamp of his own on border-crossing stories."

Esperanto Filmoj, the production company founded by Alfonso Cuarón and led by Oscar-nominated producer Gabriela Rodríguez, shepherded the project. The company is currently developing "Ravenloft," a Dungeons & Dragons series for Netflix, and "Wolf's Belly," a feature based on John August's graphic-novel version of "Little Red Riding Hood" for Sony Pictures.

The acquisition adds to a strong year for Janus Films, which has had multiple successful arthouse runs in 2025, from the family drama "Blue Heron" to the Japanese epic "The Samurai and the Prisoner." The company will also release Paul Thomas Anderson's 35mm concert capture "Cameron Winter at Carnegie Hall," centered on the Geese frontman, after it plays the New York Film Festival.

With festival momentum, a specialized distributor and a 2027 theatrical window, "Campeón Gabacho" now has a clear path from its SXSW triumph to North American audiences.