NAIAN GONZÁLEZ NORVIND | SHINES WITH HER PERFORMANCE IN CORINA @SXSW FILM AND IN MÉXICO
NAIAN GONZÁLEZ NORVIND, shined in the film Corina, a film that received the SXSW Global Audience Award at the SXSW FIlm Festival in Austin, Texas, and on April 29, a month later, Naian received the Diosa de Plata Award in México as best actress for her performance in Corina.
DIosa de Plata is a film award granted annually by the Mexican Film Journalists Association (PECIME) in recognition of professionals and excellence in the Mexican film industry.
Naian González Norvind is a Mexican actress and writer who grew up surrounded by a family of outstanding women in anthe artistic environment. She is the granddaughter of the Norwegian Mexican actress Eva Norvind, daughter of Nailea Norvind and sister of Tessa Ía and Camila Sodi, recognized actresses in Mexico and Latin America.
Naian has a solid background in literature, art, and acting. She studied at the Sorbonne University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Naian Gonzalez has excelled in film productions in Mexico (New Order) and the United States (South Mountain).
Naian has also appeared in television series in the United States as Alice Tetch in Gotham (2014-1019) and a recurring role in Invasion (2021-to present). Naian’s wide range of acting and professional experience is palpable in her performance in the film Corina.
ABOUT CORINA
Naian Gonzalez Norvin stars as the main character, Corina, in a film that chronicles the life of a young editor who suffers from agoraphobia, the fear of large spaces, after a family tragedy when she was a child. Her whole world is limited to four streets in her neighborhood, Colonia Americana, with all she needs: her house, a friend’s grocery store and the offices of the Publishing company where she works at.
Together with her friend Carlos, played by Cristo Fernández (Ted Lasso), she shows us how she overcomes it, through a mistake in her job at a publishing house due to her passion for books and writing. A mistake that pushses her out of her boundaries in order to fix it.
From Guadalajara México, the director of the film, Urzula Barba Hopfner, also won a Diosa De Plata Award and wrote the screenplay together with Samuel Sosa. The story line is accompanied by the steady pulse of the captivating music by Andrés Sánchez Maer and Gus Reyes.
| READ MORE ON URZULA BARBA HOPFNER HERE
Shot in one of the oldest and most beautiful neighborhoods of Guadalajara, Mexico the combination of all of these production elements gives us a very special gift of art.
CORINA was presented at the SXSW Film Festival 2025 and we had the opportunity to chat with Naian later at her home in México City.
It was a great pleasure to be back with Naian who has graced us with her presence in the pages of La Revista Mujer in previous editions and we are proud of the recent GLOBAL AUDIENCE AWARD for the film Corina as well as the DIOSA DE PLATA AWARDS in Mexico city. Naian tells us the following about CORINA.
READ MORE ABOUT NAIAN GONZALEZ NORVIND AND LA REVISTA MUJER HERE.
Naian, in the character of CORINA, you use a minimum of words and a maximum of dialogue with your eyes and physical movements. What were your challenges to performing this role?
Yes, at first it makes some of the work easier, but it adds other challenges, with the eyes, a look, with a minimum of words in the script for my character.
But it also allows me to explore other languages, and we focused a lot on the physicality of Corina, on how Corina exists, how she exists in her space, in her environment.
Have you suffered from this fear of large spaces, or did you have a reference with someone close to you that helped you perform this character so convincingly?
Thank you. Yes, I had the great help of Urzula Barba Hopfner, the director of this film. Urzula had several bouts of agoraphobia a few years ago. That’s where the idea of making Corina came from. So my main reference and my guide, too, was always her.
Fortunately, I’m from the other extreme, I don’t like closed places, elevators, in other words, the opposite.
Personally, how much of you is there in Corina’s character?
There are ways in which we are very similar;. our love for literature, our attention to detail, perfectionism, a little bit. And our curiosity about life as well. I think we are both curious. I think that’s where I’m similar to her.
Corina’s film director, Urzula Barba Hopfner (left), Cristo Fernández (center) and Iván Lòpez Barba (right) @SXSW Film Festival, Austin, Texas.
The film’s director, Urzula Barba Hopfner, commented at SXSW Film that art allows us to sublimate elements of our curiosities. What important message do you hope the audience will take away after seeing the film CORINA?
For me there are two messages in the film, one is that there is a lot of freedom to be found on the other side of certain acts of bravery.
The other is that artistic integrity is paramount to making a real artist. That honesty with yourself, about what you want to tell and how you want to tell it, without making concessions. I think that’s what takes things to another level.
In the film the word cowardice is used during a conversation Corina has with her mother to help her make a final edit of a book.
Yes, we deal with the theme that fear of going outside of your environment could be understood as being cowardly.
«But I like that in this film we accept being afraid, as part of the process, since if there is no fear, there is no bravery.»
CORINA’S STYLE
All your CORINA’S outfits during the film have a fresh casual elegance. Solid, flowing colors, soft fabrics were these part of your own wardrobe or ideas from the costume designer?
It was the result of a creation by Ana Barroso, the customer designer and with the film director, Urzula Barba Hopfner. It happens a lot in independent films that they ask you for things from your closet. The truth is that I do have too many clothes because I like clothes a lot. There is a lot of colorimetry in Corina, and the wardrobe plays an important role in that.
BOOTS
Apart from the colors, Corina’s outfits try to convey something, for example the boots that I wear in almost all the costumes, I feel like the boots of a warrior who goes out to conquer the world.
For example, when Corina is counting the steps in each block to help her conquer the anxiety of having to go out of her house and her daily boundaries.
HOODIE
Another interesting detail is that almost all my jackets have a hoodie type hood, this conveys the feeling that Corina needs, to be sheltered from the outside world.
NAIAN’S FAVORITE DESIGNER
What is your favorite designer at the moment?
Oh what a good question, I have many, but among others I guess the designs of Mexican designer Kris Goyri stand out.
The music and the rhythm of the film reminds me of the style of director Wes Anderson, do you think it was a reference for this film?
The truth is that it was a coincidence, or rather it wasn’t a conscious reference. The films that Urzula, the director of this film, grew up with, the ones that impacted her life, are still very fresh within her. We all inhabit the country of our references and they are reflected in this film.
If you had the opportunity to act in a period film celebrating a woman, whether it be from the medieval era like Joan of Arc, or more contemporary Marie Curie, or American aviator pilot Amelia Elhart, or a poet you admire, who would you like to play?
Oh what a good question. A period film is something I would really like to do, period stuff. For example, I would love to make a Shakespeare play. I also really want to do Cleopatra and Anthony.
FUTURE PROJECTS
Finally, what’s next after CORINA, what plans or surprises do you have for the future?
There will be another film, EL SALVAJE that will be released in Mexico and also another LAS LOCURAS on NETFLIX more towards the fall.
POETRY BAR
Naina, we also love following your passion for poetry on Instagram POETRY AND DRINK 2025. What poetry are you reading or recommend reading right now?
I’m going to a poetry bar in Guanajuato and I’m going to read from a Guanajuato poet named Juan Manuel Ramirez Palomares.
Also Juan Gelman, an Argentine poet who died in 2014. He also lived in Mexico for a few years and became a naturalized citizen. I also find him an admirable man, how to carry the tragedies of life with lightness.
What are your favorite wines or drinks this season?
Lately I can only drink white wine, such as Chardonnay, Albariño and Vermentino.
And rosé I also like, but I prefer the white that I just discovered. I like wines with a good body. No matter how much you know about wine, I think that at the end of the day it is a matter of taste.
NAIAN’S BEST ACTRESS DIOSA DE PLATA AWARD, MÉXICO CITY
As a golden seal to this article, we were thrilled that NAINA GONZÁLEZ NORVIND received the DIOSA DE PLATA award in México as best actress for her performance in CORINA, on April 29, 2025. Bravo Naian!
By: Lilia Rodriguez-Davis. photos courtesy of Naian González Norvind and SXSW Film Festival
