The Morelia International Film Competition is preparing to receive Alexander Payne, Liv Tyler, Rodrigo Prieto, Francis Ford Coppola, as well as films from different continents and eras.
The 22nd edition of the contest includes a selection of more than 100 films from 50 countries, said the basic director of the contest, Daniela Michel, in an interview with The related press.
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It is a “very diverse edition, with many offers, very multicultural,” said Michel. “Obviously, as we always say, the guest country is Mexico.”
The competition will take place from Friday, October 18 to October 27 in Morelia, capital of Michoacán. It will begin with a gala screening of “Emilia Pérez” by Jacques Audiard, the film about a trans Mexican drug trafficker, which was recognized at the last edition of Cannes with the best actress award for its ensemble made up of Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gómez, Karla . Sofía Gascón and Adriana Paz. He also received the jury prize.
“It’s wonderful, the truth is it’s a very risky movie, it does a triple somersault and falls like a 10-point jump,” said Michel. “It is a very authentic vision, it is musical… it is a very surprising and very well made film.”
The opening gala will be attended by Audiard and the actors Edgar Ramírez, Karla Sofía Gascón and Adriana Paz.
Coppola will receive the FICM Artistic Excellence Award in recognition of his incomparable career of more than 60 years, in addition to presenting his most recent film “Megalopolis” at a grand gala.
Films and short films at the FICM
In the competing sections, the participation will be 52 short films (including documentary, fiction and animation), 14 documentary feature films, 18 Michoacan works and nine Mexican fiction feature films. Michel highlighted that 28% of the films in competition are directed by indigenous peoples and 42% by women.
The Mexican feature film section is made up of “Chicharras” by Luna Marán; “The Kitchen” by Alonso Ruizpalacios; “A Fisherman’s Tale” by Edgar Nito; “His Father’s Son” by Aarón Fernández; “Honest Men” by Alejandro Andrade Pease; “Lazarus at night” by Nicolás Pereda; “The Stripe” by Yolanda Cruz; “Sujo” by Fernanda Valadez and Astrid Rondero and “Violent butterflies”, by Adolfo Dávila.
The Mexican feature film jury will be chaired by Payne, and will be made up of Tyler and American filmmaker Ira Sachs.
“He is a very, very intelligent person, very erudite, and in addition to being a juror (Payne) is going to present a film that he loves, which is ‘Border Incident’ by Anthony Mann, which is part of our Imaginary Mexico cycle,” Michel said. . Payne will also receive the UNAM Film Archive Medal.
The jury for the Mexican documentary section will be made up of Mary Bell, an Oscar-winning Scottish producer; Cristian Calónico, Mexican director; and Doris Metz, German documentary filmmaker. The Mexican short film section will have a jury made up of Esther Brejon, member of the Cannes Critics’ Week selection committee; Fernando Eimbcke, Mexican director; and César Díaz, Belgian-Guatemalan filmmaker who won the Camera d’Or in Cannes.
Finally, the jury of the Michoacan section is made up of Armando Casas, president of the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences; Itzel Martínez del Cañizo, basic director of the Ambulante documentary tour; and Jorge Magaña, founder and director of Shorts México.
Prieto will present his adaptation of Juan Rulfo’s classic novel “Pedro Páramo” at a grand gala accompanied by the film’s cast that includes Manuel García-Rulfo, Dolores Heredia, Ilse Salas, Mayra Batalla and Giovanna Zacarías.
As part of the Indigenous Peoples Forum of filmmakers from indigenous peoples, the films “Bila Burba” by Duiren Wagua (Panama) and “Soleils Atikamekw” by Chloe Leriche (Canada) will be presented.
The contest will also pay tribute to Mexican director Ismael Rodríguez of the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema, with a program of special screenings of films such as “How Nice is Michoacán!” (1941), “The Three Garcías” (1947) and “We the Poor” (1947) as well as a photographic exhibition.
Who will attend the Morelia film contest?
Among the special guests of the competition is the French director Léos Carax, who will present “C’est pas moi”, as well as the world premiere of the restored film “Les amants du Pont-Neuf” (“The Lovers of the Pont-Neuf”). .
The American James Ivory will return for the third time to the FICM to present the documentary “Service Provider Ivory” by Stephen Soucy and his film “Howard’s Finish”. And American filmmaker Ava DuVernay will bring her award-winning film “Origin.”
The FICM will also feature “The Room Next Door,” by Pedro Almodóvar, winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Competition; and “Anora”, by Sean Baker, winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes. “The Apprentice” by Ali Abbasi, “The Brutalist” by Brady Corbet and “Conclave” by Edward Berger will have their Mexican premiere in the competition. Morelia will close with the Apple TV+ series, “Disclaimer” (“Contempt”) by Alfonso Cuarón.
This year Michel received the MUSA Award from the 20th International Women in Film and TV Show, the Vittorio Boarini Award from Il Cinema Ritrovato, in Bologna, and starting this year he will be a member of the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences, which awards the Oscar.
“The important thing is to keep working, you have to keep doing more and more things,” he said about these recognitions.