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FICM Inaugurated Its 22nd Edition With Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez

The Morelia International Film Festival (FICM) opened its 22nd edition with Jacques Audiard's film Emilia Pérez, thanks to the support of Zima Entertainment.

The ceremony was attended by the French director and actresses Karla Sofía Gascón and Adriana Paz, as well as FICM president Alejandro Ramírez; FICM vice president Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Batel; the festival's general director Daniela Michel; the mayor of Morelia, Alfonso Martínez Alcázar; director of the Mexican Film Institute (IMCINE) Daniela Alatorre; and the Michoacán Secretary of Culture, Tamara Sosa, who was there in representation of Michoacán's Governor Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla.

During the Opening Ceremony of the 22nd FICM, Jacques Audiard was awarded the Award for Artistic Excellence, “For a career inhabited by messianic gangsters and desperate lovers; for his depictions of a Paris where no one is master and where destiny imposes its rule; for looking at the so-called ‘others’ with understanding and humanitarian passion,” in Alejandro Ramirez's words.

"I am grateful to the whole team at this wonderful festival and to the film's distributor, who has done a wonderful job. I first came to Mexico a long time ago, it was a different country then, and I was different myself. I was impressed by its vitality and dramatic power and I promised myself to return one day. How could I imagine back then that it would be to receive such a beautiful award? How could I ever dream that it would be presenting a film in Spanish, a language I don't speak? Long live cinema, long live Mexico,” said a moved Jacques Audiard.

The extraordinary director and actresses Karla Sofía Gascón and Adriana Paz also unveiled the armchairs bearing their names, which will be placed in theater 5 at Cinépolis Morelia Centro.

Winner of the Jury Prize and the Best Actress Award ( presented to the four leading ladies-Karla Sofia Gascon, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz) at the last Cannes Film Festival, this film tells the story of Rita, an overqualified and underrated lawyer employed by a large law firm that is more interested in freeing criminals than bringing them to justice. One day, she is presented with an unexpected outlet when the cartel's leader, Manitas, hires her to help him retire from his business and carry out a plan he has been secretly preparing for years: to become the woman she has always dreamed of being.

Ahead of the Opening Ceremony of the 22nd FICM, personalities such as Liv Tyler, Yalitza Aparicio, Dolores Heredia, Ilse Salas, Mayra Batalla, Giovanna Zacarías, Noé Hernández, Alejandro Calva, as well as filmmakers Fernando Eimbcke, César Díaz and Rodrigo Prieto, among others, walked the red carpet.

The 22nd FICM, presented by MAPFRE, will be held in Morelia at Cinépolis Morelia Centro, Cinépolis VIP Plaza Las Américas, Teatro Mariano Matamoros, Teatro Melchor Ocampo, Centro Cultural Universitario and Plaza Benito Juárez; as well as in Pátzcuaro at the Teatro Emperador Caltzontzin; with free virtual screenings through nuestrocine.mx, by the Mexican Film Institute (IMCINE).

Check the program: moreliafilmfest.com/programacion.