09 · 24 · 09

Films in Competition

Administrador

"This year, 44 short films, 20 documentaries, 11 Michoacán works and six features by filmmakers from different states of the republic, such as Michoacán, Nuevo León, Chiapas, Jalisco, Nayarit, State of Mexico, Puebla, Oaxaca, Veracruz and Mexico City, will participate," he said.

Ramírez said this year there is a 20 percent increase in participation in the festival with a total of 600 short films, 120 documentaries and 52 features.
He emphasized that "since last year, in the case of fiction and animation short films, the winner will be considered for an Oscar nomination." Along with Morelia, there are only two other Latin American festivals recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, those of Cartagena and Río de Janeiro.

The section of Mexican Feature Films includes exclusively first and second time directors. Those competing this year are Alamar by Pedro González Rubio, El Calambre by Matías Meyer, Chamaco by Miguel Necoechea, La Mitad del Mundo by Jaime Ruiz Ibañez, Norteado by Rigoberto Perezcano and Vaho by Alejandro Gerber. 

The International Jury of the 7th Morelia International Film Festival is made up of Mihai Chirilov, director of the International Film Festival of Transilvania; Nick Roddick, critic of Sight & Sound; Bill Guttentag, U.S. director, winner of two Oscars; Leo Soesanto, critic of Les Inrockuptibles and member of the Selection Committee of the International Critics´ Week section at Cannes; Nicolás Philibert, distinguished French documentary filmmaker; Paul Julian Smith, professor at the University of Cambridge and author of numerous books on Spanish and Mexican cinema; Luis Mandoki, well-known director; Eugenio Polgovsky, director of the documentaries Los Herederos and Trópico de Cáncer; Gabriel Orozco, prominent visual artist, and José María Riba, distinguished critic, former member of the direction committee at the Festival de San Sebastián and currently collaborator at the Cannes Festival, as programmer of Spanish and Latin American films.

Those attending today´s press conference included Thelma Aquique Arrieta, assistant secretary of promotion, Lic. Azucena Solórzano Ávila, head of the Department of Visual Arts in representation of Jaime Hernández Díaz, Marina Stavenhagen, director of IMCINE; Alejandro Ramírez, presidente of FICM; Lic. Daniela Michel, general director of FICM; Daniela de los Santos, Síndico del Honorable Ayuntamiento de Morelia and José Ernesto Espinosa, director of General Universal Pictures International México.