Morelia International Film Festival

The Morelia International Film Festival (FICM) emerged as a need to create a unique meeting point in Mexico for the cinematographic community, the people of Michoacán, and international filmmakers. FICM started in 2003 with the goal of establishing a forum to promote up-and-coming Mexican cinema talents, to create incentives and cultural opportunities for the Mexican and international public, and to display the cultural richness of the state of Michoacán.

Paulo Vidales/Imagen Latente

The Festival has four official sections in competition: Mexican Short Film, Mexican Documentary, Mexican Feature Film and Michoacán Section (including short and feature-length films, as well as fiction and documentaries from the State of Michoacán). The Festival also has a Michoacán Short Film Scriptwriting Contest, in which scripts by writers born or residing in Michoacán can compete.

In addition to the screenings of each of the films in the different sections, every year FICM celebrates the career of a recognized filmmaker who attends the festival to share his or her experience with young filmmakers and the public.

Among the distinguished directors who have attended FICM since its first edition are: Serge Bromberg, Alfonso Cuarón, Doris Dörrie, Bruno Dumont, Stephen Frears, Gael García Bernal, Terry Gilliam, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Salma Hayek, Todd Haynes, Werner Herzog, Mike Hodges, Tommy Lee Jones, Diego Luna, Cristian Mungiu, Manoel de Oliveira, Arthur Penn, Nicolas Philibert, Carlos Reygadas, Raúl Ruiz, Barbet Schroeder, Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, Bertrand Taviernier, Guillermo del Toro, Fernando Trueba and Gus Van Sant.

Every year FICM honors an important figure of Mexican cinema from the state of Michoacán. In previous years, the festival has paid homage to filmmakers Miguel Contreras, Fernando Méndez, the Alva brothers, cinematographer Ezequiel Carrasco, actor Julio Alemán, and the actresses Stella Inda and Lilia Prado.

In its first year, FICM established a solid partnership with the International Critics' Week of the Cannes Film Festival, which has supported Mexican filmmakers such as Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, Guillermo del Toro and Fernando Eimbcke. A selection of films from the Critics' Week is presented each year at FICM with the presence of some of their participants. Likewise, the Critics' Week shows some of the winning films of FICM. Among the documentaries that have been presented at Cannes are Eugenio Polgovsky´s Trópico de Cáncer, Toro Negro by Carlos Armella and Pedro González Rubio, Mi vida adentro by Lucía Gajá and Gustavo Gamou's La palomilla salvaje. The short films Peces plátano, by Natalia Beristáin, El pasajero by Matías Meyer, Carlos Carrera's De raíz, La canción de los niños muertos by David Pablos, Jacinta by Karla Castañeda, Zoogocho by Bernardo Arrellano, Roma by Elisa Miller, Señora Pájaro by Véronique Decroux, Busco empleo by Francisco Valle (who passed away in 2010), Carne que recuerda by Dalia Huerta Cano and Ponkina by Beatriz Herrera have also been shown in Cannes.

In 2008 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences officially recognized FICM by offering fiction and animation short films that win at FICM the opportunity to be considered for an Oscar® nomination. For more information, please go to: http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/rules/rule19.html

Film series, outdoor screenings, workshops, conferences, round tables and exhibitions in Morelia, Pátzcuaro and Mexico City complete FICM's year-round activities.