FIRST MAN to Open the Morelia International Film Festival

The Morelia International Film Festival (FICM) revealed the programming of its 16th edition, which will take place from the 20th to the 28th of October 2018.

OFFICIAL SELECTION

The sections in competition in the Section Michoacana are an essential part of the FICM; Mexican Short Film, Mexican Documentary and Mexican Feature Film. This year, there will be 59 short films, 11 documentaries, 12 works from Michoacán and 11 feature films by filmmakers from different states of the Mexican Republic. In total there will be more than 100 Mexican filmmakers presenting their work.

For the fifth consecutive year, the festival presents the Online Mexican Short Film Selection, which is made up of more than 20 short films from the Official Selection of the 16th FICM. These titles will be available online and free as of October 20. The short film that receives the most votes will take the Online Mexican Short Film Award.

It is important to remember that in the case of fiction, documentary and animation short films, as well as documentary feature films, the winner will be considered eligible for the Oscar® nomination.

This year, the Mexican Feature Films Section is made up of: Antes del olvido, by Iria Gómez Concheiro; Asfixia, from Kenya Márquez; Bayoneta, by Kyzza Terrazas; La camarista, by Lila Avilés; La caótica VIDA de nada Kadic, by Marta Hernaiz; Leona, by Isaac Cherem; Luciérnagas, by Bani Khoshnoudi; Museo, by Alonso Ruizpalacios; Las niñas bien, by Alejandra Márquez; Olimpia, by José Manuel Cravioto; and El ombligo de Guie'dani, by Xavi Sala.

JURY

In this 16th edition, the jury of the Morelia International Film Festival will be chaired by: Lynne Ramsay, acclaimed Scottish filmmaker; Adele Romanski, Oscar-winning producer for Moonlight by BARRY Jenkins; the great actor Diego Luna; Julie Bertuccelli, multi-awarded French director; Beki Probst, director of the European Film Market of the Berlinale; Patrice Leconte, renowned French filmmaker; Jacques Kermabon, editor of BREF magazine and contributor to the Cannes Film Festival; Jason Spingarn-Koff, acclaimed documentary producer and programmer; Michael Rowe, winning director of the Caméra D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival; Iván Giroud, president and director of the International New Film Festival of Havana; Léo Soesanto, director of the short film selection of the Cannes Critics' Week; Carlos García Agraz, general director of Estudios Churubusco Azteca; Alfredo Loaeza, general director of the Cinematographic Training Center (CCC); and Alejandro Pelayo, general director of the Cineteca Nacional.

NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL RELEASES

This year, an integrated exhibition will be screened with a selection of more than 40 premieres of the best of national and international cinematography. We will have the Mexican premieres of: Perfectos desconocidos, by Manolo Caro; Sonora, by Alejandro Springall; Rencor tatuado, by Julián Hernández; Chivas, by Iván López; and Mi pequeño gran hombre, by Jorge Ramírez Suárez.

Among the international premieres, the festival will have: Colette, by Wash Westmoreland; En guerre, by Stéphane Brizé; Climax, by Gaspar Noé; The Happy Prince, by Rupert Everett; The Old Man & The Gun, by David Lowery; Everyone Knows, by Asghar Farhadi; Beautiful Boy, by Felix Van Groeningen; The Eyes of Orson Welles, by Mark Cousins; The Front Runner, by Jason Reitman; The Wild Pear Tree, by Nuri Bilge Ceylan. The winning film of the Palme d'Or of the past Cannes Film Festival, Shoplifters, by Hirokazu Kore-eda will also be presented.

TRIBUTES

Every year, an important figure of Mexican cinema born in Michoacán is celebrated as part of the Morelia International Film Festival. In its 16th edition, FICM will have the honor of paying tribute to the famous Michoacán producer Miguel Contreras Torres with special screenings of El padre Morelos (1943) and El rayo de sur (1943).

This year, the festival will also pay tribute to Pierre Rissient, an esteemed and respected friend of the festival, showing his film Cinq et la peau (1982), as well as the documentary Gentleman Rissient (2016) by Benoît Jacquot, Pascal Merigeau and Guy Séligmann.

In addition, FICM will pay tribute to the director Dominique Jonard, pioneer and a referent of cinematographic animation in Michoacán, projecting a selection of his works.

INTERNATIONAL CRITIC'S WEEK

As is already tradition, the films of the International Critics' Week at the Cannes Film Festival 2018 will have a starring role in this year's festival: Chris the Swiss, by Anja Kofmel; Egy Nap, by Zsófia Szilágyi; Fuga, by Agnieszka Smoczy?ska; Sir, by Rohena Gera; Woman at War, by Benedikt Erlingsson; Guy, by Alex Lutz; and Diamantino, by Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt, winner of the Critics' Week Grand Prix.

SPECIAL PROGRAMS AND SCREENINGS

Thanks to the invaluable support of the Cineteca Nacional, UNAM's Film Library and the Televisa Foundation, the Mexican Institute of Cinematography (IMCINE), Mr. Carlos Vasallo (VasalloVision) and Viviana García Besné (Voluntary Permanency), the 16th FICM will pay tribute to the extraordinary cinematographer Alex Phillips with special screenings of: Santa (1931), by Antonio Moreno; La mujer de nadie (1937), of Adela Sequeyro; Doña Bárbara (1943), by Fernando de Fuentes; Aventurera (1950), by Alberto Gout; Subida al cielo (1952), of Luis Buñuel; Sombra verde (1954), by Roberto Gavaldón, and El castillo de la pureza (1973), by Arturo Ripstein. The photographic exhibition Alex Phillips: Builder of Atmospheres, made up of images from the Televisa Foundation archive, will also be presented within the festival.

In collaboration with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of the United States, FICM will present a special program dedicated to three Mexican actresses who left their mark in Hollywood: Dolores del Río, Lupe Vélez and Katy Jurado. John Bailey, president of the Academy, will present the program, which includes: In Caliente (1933), by Lloyd Bacon; Mexican Spitfire (1940), by Leslie Goodwins; and Broken Lance (1954), by Edward Dmytryk.

Thanks to the support of Martin Scorsese's The Film Foundation, we will have special screenings of Rosita (1923), by Ernst Lubitsch; Prisioneros de la tierra (1939), by Mario Soffici; and Enamorada (1946), by Emilio Fernández. The latter is part of the Televisa Foundation archive and was RESTORED in collaboration with The Film Foundation.

On the other hand, inspired by an excellent idea by French director Bertrand Tavernier, who was a guest of FICM in 2007, "Mexico imaginario", a special program dedicated to the great actor Ricardo Montalbán, will be held this year. It includes: Border Incident (1949), by Anthony Mann; My Man and I (1952), by William A. Wellman; and Sombrero (1953), by Norman Foster.

With the support of the Goethe Institute, FICM will present a special German cinema program, which includes: The Young Karl Marx, by Raoul Peck; Transit, by Christian Petzold; and The Doll, by Ernst Lubitsch.

A program dedicated to Mexican cinema of THE SEVENTIES created in collaboration with the Cineteca Nacional will be shown this year, it includes: Mecánica nacional (1971), by Luis Alcoriza; El principio (1972), by Gonzalo Martínez Ortega; El rincón de las vírgenes(1972), by Alberto Isaac; La pasión según Berenice (1975), by Jaime Humberto Hermosillo; Canoa (1975), by Felipe Cazals; Los albañiles (1976), by Jorge Fons; and El lugar sin límites (1977), by Arturo Ripstein.

The festival will also present the "Jean Vigo Award" program, comprised by this year's winning films: Shéhérazade, by Jean-Bernard Marlin, and Knife + Heart, by Yann Gonzalez, with both filmmakers attending.

IMPULSO MORELIA 4

Programmers of important national and international festivals, producers, distributors and sales agents will be invited to participate actively in Impulso Morelia 4. This year, the international jury will be formed by: Nicolas Philibert, acclaimed French director; Josué Méndez, artistic director of the Lima Film Festival; and Mirsad Purivatra, director of the Sarajevo Film Festival.

SPECIAL GUESTS

The film First Man, directed by Damien Chazelle, will be screened at the Inauguration ceremony of our 16th edition, an event that will take place the night of October 20 at Cinépolis Centro Morelia with the presence of the director.

This edition will have the privilege of counting with Alfonso Cuarón as a guest of honor, attending a Grand Gala for the Latin American premiere of his extraordinary film Roma, recent winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Festival which will also represent Mexico at the Oscar® and Goya awards.

The acclaimed Polish director and a great friend of the festival, Pawel Pawlikowski, returns to Morelia for the Mexican premiere of his new film Cold War, which won the Best Director award at the last Cannes Film Festival.

Additionally, we are privileged to have the presence of Paul Weitz, who will present Bel Canto; Fran Healy, who will present his documentary Almost Fashionable: A Film About Travis; Dan Millar, who will present his documentary Botero in Mexico; and Almudena Carracedo, who will present her acclaimed documentary El silencio de los otros.

VENUES

The venues of this 16th edition will be the Cinépolis Morelia Centro and Cinépolis Las Américas complexes, as well as the Melchor Ocampo Theater. In addition, there will be free screenings at Casa Natal de Morelos, the Aula Mater of the San Nicolás de Hidalgo School, Plaza Benito Juárez, and lectures at the José Rubén Romero Theater. There will also be an extension of the Festival in Patzcuaro, with screenings in the "Teatro Emperador Caltzontzin".

FICM is especially grateful to the Michoacán University of San Nicolás de Hidalgo for their kind support. Many of the official venues of the festival are possible thanks to the enormous disposition of the rector, Dr. Medardo Serna and all the staff that makes the use of their spaces during the festival possible.

THE BEST OF FICM IN MEXICO CITY

FICM will screen the winners of the competition and a selection of the programming in The Best of FICM in Mexico City, from the 2nd to 11th of November in: Cinépolis, from November 2 to 8; Cineteca Nacional, November 3 and 4; Centro Cultural Universitario, November 9 to 11; Faros Aragón and Milpa Alta, November 8 and 9; Cinema Tonalá from November 6 to 10. Finally, on November 9 and 10, thanks to the support of Ecocinema, there will be two outdoor screenings powered 100% with solar energy.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

FICM appreciates the invaluable support of the Government of the State of Michoacán and its various dependencies, the Honorable City Council of Morelia, the Ministry of Culture, Cinépolis, the Mexican Film Institute, Cineteca Nacional, UNAM's Film Library and Televisa Foundation, of the Michoacán University of San Nicolás de Hidalgo, of all the allied media and each one of the instances that make the realization of this event possible.
Furthermore, FICM wishes to offer a very special thanks to HSBC, Kansas City Southern of Mexico, Mundet, Nespresso and Cuervo, as well as to the French Embassy, to Unifrance and Goethe-Institut Mexiko, for their extraordinary support, without which the festival would not be possible.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information, FICM invites you to consult its website www.moreliafilmfest.com and its social networks, as well as downloading the free apps for iPhone and Android, where you can check the festival's schedule and program movies, among other things.