MUBI Announces the return of Amores Perros to Theaters 25 Years Later: Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Landmark Film Gets Stunning 4K Revival

Some movies don’t just age well — they grow teeth with time. And apparently, Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Amores Perros is still biting hard 25 years later.

MUBI has officially announced a nationwide theatrical re-release for Amores Perros, the explosive 2000 debut feature that helped launch Iñárritu into global auteur territory long before Birdman and The Revenant made him an Oscar darling. The new release arrives in a freshly restored 4K version, giving audiences a chance to revisit — or discover for the first time — one of the defining films of modern Mexican cinema on the big screen.

The restoration premiered in the Cannes Classics section at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, where both Iñárritu and star Gael García Bernal were present for the celebration. MUBI has now acquired worldwide rights and is bringing the film back to theaters across North America beginning June 12.

When and where will Amores Perros re-release in theaters?

The restored version of Amores Perros will first open in select theaters in New York City and at the Alamo Downtown LA on June 12, before expanding nationwide on June 19.

For cinephiles who’ve only experienced the film through DVDs, streaming, or film-school clips on YouTube, this re-release feels particularly significant. Amores Perros was always designed to overwhelm viewers with its fractured storytelling, raw street-level energy, and emotionally devastating intersections of fate. Watching it in a packed theater may honestly be the closest thing modern audiences get to time travel.

Why is Amores Perros considered such an important film?

Released in 2000, Amores Perros arrived like a cinematic punch to the chest. The film premiered at Cannes and won the Grand Prize of the Critics’ Week, instantly positioning Alejandro G. Iñárritu as one of world cinema’s most exciting new voices.

The movie follows three interconnected stories in Mexico City, all tied together by a brutal car crash:

• Octavio (Gael García Bernal), a teenager trying to escape poverty through underground dog fighting
• Valeria (Goya Toledo), a glamorous model whose life changes after the accident
• El Chivo (Emilio Echeverría), a former guerrilla turned hitman drifting through guilt and isolation

What made the film revolutionary wasn’t just its multi-narrative structure — though Hollywood would later imitate that endlessly — but the emotional chaos underneath it. The film explored violence, desire, survival, loneliness, and class divisions with a rawness that still feels almost dangerous today.

Over the years, Amores Perros has come to be viewed as one of the defining films of 21st-century cinema, influencing everything from prestige dramas to hyperlink storytelling trends in global filmmaking.

What’s new in the 4K restoration?

This isn’t just a standard remaster slapped together for anniversary marketing.

The restoration was carried out by The Criterion Collection, Estudio Mexico Films, and Altavista Films, with color supervision personally overseen by Iñárritu and acclaimed cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (Killers of the Flower Moon, Brokeback Mountain, Babel).

The film also features a newly created 5.1 surround sound mix by Jon Taylor at NBCUniversal StudioPost, which should make Gustavo Santaolalla’s iconic score hit even harder in theaters.

Given how gritty and tactile the original film looked, it’ll be fascinating to see how the restoration balances preserving its rough-edged realism while enhancing the visual detail for modern projection standards.

Alejandro G. Iñárritu says the “wild dogs are still barking”

In a statement accompanying the announcement, Iñárritu reflected emotionally on the film’s legacy:

“It’s incredible that these wild dogs are still barking 25 years later. I’m very excited that MUBI is bringing Amores Perros back to the big screen, especially for younger generations who never had the chance to experience it in theaters. This film changed the lives of all of us who made it.”

Honestly, he’s not exaggerating.

Without Amores Perros, there’s probably no 21 Grams, no Babel, and perhaps no modern version of Iñárritu as we know him today. The film didn’t just reshape Mexican cinema internationally — it cracked open the door for a more globalized era of auteur filmmaking in the 2000s.

The anniversary celebration goes beyond theaters

The 25th anniversary isn’t stopping with the theatrical re-release.

A multisensory installation titled Sueño Perro, featuring previously unseen 35mm archival footage from the film, is currently on display at LACMA in Los Angeles through July 26, 2026.

There’s also a new retrospective art book from publisher MACK that compiles rare behind-the-scenes photographs, storyboards, handwritten production notes from Iñárritu, and essays from filmmakers Denis Villeneuve and Walter Salles.

In other words, this anniversary rollout feels less like a nostalgic reissue and more like a full-blown cultural reappraisal of a film that never really stopped mattering.

And judging by the reaction at Cannes, Amores Perros may still have enough emotional bite left to shake an entirely new generation of movie lovers.