10 · 20 · 23

FICM Opens its 21st Edition with a Screening of Viggo Mortensen’s THE DEAD DON’T HURT

The Morelia International Film Festival (FICM) opened its 21st edition with the film The Dead Don't Hurt, by Viggo Mortensen, thanks to the support of Talipot Studio and producer Jeremy Thomas. The ceremony was attended by the great actor and director.

The Dead Don't Hurt, writer-director extraordinaire Viggo Mortensen's second foray as a screenwriter and director, is a story of forlorn lovers set on the western frontier of the United States in the 1860s.
 

María Novaro, director of the National Film Institute (IMCINE), thanked FICM for promoting national cinema during her participation in the opening ceremony: "We have programmed 106 Mexican films in this edition. FICM has always prioritized Mexican cinema and making it accessible to its audiences, which has been very good for Mexico's film industry. Year after year, Mexican cinema is found and honored at the Morelia Festival. Thank you, Morelia Film Festival.

Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla, governor of Michoacán, said that "cinema puts the values of ethics and human solidarity before the terrible misery that wars represent (...) FICM is 21 years old and that fills us with pride and also with light for humanity and for each one of us.

Festival president Alejandro Ramírez Magaña added that this edition represents the beginning of FICM's third decade and praised the work of Daniela Michel, founder and general director, and Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Batel, vice president. "FICM's most essential part lies in its competition, which serves as a platform to discover and celebrate Mexico's talented filmmakers." He also thanked the distinguished Special Guests who will participate in this edition of the festival.

The festival's Vice President, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Batel, voiced his solidarity with the strike of the Screenwriters Union in the United States, stressing that its outcome will have a positive impact on the boom in the use of new technologies in filmmaking.

Daniela Michel was in charge of welcoming Viggo Mortensen to the stage to introduce the team behind the movie, which was shot in Mexico, and to kick off the screening.

"I'm going to try to keep it short. It is an incomparable gift to be able to present our film financed, produced and shot in Mexico at the Morelia International Film Festival," said Viggo Mortensen before calling part of the team that worked on The Dead Don't Hurt to the stage.

Prior to the opening ceremony, Rosalie Vardá, Stephanie Sigman, Miguel Bosé, James Ivory, Rodrigo Prieto, Danny Huston, Paulina Dávila, Eugenio Caballero, Manolo Caro, Regina Solórzano, and Willem Dafoe, among many other prominent personalities from the national and international film industry, walked the red carpet.

The 21st FICM will be a hybrid edition with live screenings at Cinépolis Morelia Centro, Cinépolis Plaza Las Américas, Teatro Mariano Matamoros, Centro Cultural Universitario, Plaza Benito Juárez and Casa Natal de Morelos, in Morelia; Teatro Emperador Caltzontzin and Plaza Vasco de Quiroga, in Pátzcuaro; as well as free virtual screenings through Canal 22 and FilminLatino.

The heart of the Morelia International Film Festival are the competition sections: Michoacán Section, Mexican Short Film, Mexican Documentary and Mexican Feature Film. This year, 11 films will participate in the Michoacán Section (10 short films and 1 feature film), 62 titles in the Mexican Short Film Section (16 animation, 17 documentaries and 29 fiction films), 12 titles in the Mexican Documentary Section and 11 titles in the Mexican Feature Film Section, for a total of 96 works by filmmakers from different Mexican states.

In this edition we will also have the privilege of having: Nicolas Philibert, who will present Sur l'Adamant, winner of the Golden Bear at the last Berlin Festival; Irène Jacob, who will present special screenings of Krzysztof Kieslowski's The Double Life of Veronique and Three Colours: Red; as well as the legendary James Ivory, who returns to Morelia to present a selection of his work, including his recent documentary A Cooler Climate.

We will also be honored to welcome: Frank Marshall, who will present his new documentary Rather; Amat Escalante, who will be present for a special screening of Perdidos en la noche; Rodrigo Prieto, who will present Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon; Carlos Carrera, with the world premiere of Confessions; Eugenio Derbez, who will present Christopher Zalla's Radical; Michèle Stephenson, with the documentary Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, which received the top award at the last Sundance Festival; Rosalie Varda, who will present the documentaries Viva Varda! by Pierre-Henri Gibert, and Room 999, by Lubna Playoust; Noah Pritzker, who will present Ex-Husbands; Lisa Cortes and Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, who will present the documentary The Space Race; Lucía Puenzo, with her new film Los impactados; Ehsan Khoshbakht, who will present his documentary Celluloid Underground; and Olmo Schnabel, who will present Pet Shop Days.

Additionally, we will have the privilege of welcoming the extraordinary Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco, who will present his new film Memory, recently awarded at the Venice Film Festival, at a Grand Gala.

In keeping with tradition, this 21st edition will feature a stellar presentation of films from the Critics' Week at the last Cannes Film Festival.

Supported by the Coppel Foundation, we will carry out the "Cinema Without Borders" program, which includes the presentation of Hummingbirds, by Estefanía Contreras and Silvia Del Carmen Castaños, winner of the International Jury Prize Generation at the Berlin Film Festival.

Thanks to the invaluable support of the UNAM Film Archive, the Cineteca Nacional, Fundación Televisa, the Mexican Film Institute (IMCINE), Diana Films, Viviana García Besné and Cinematográfica Calderón, the 21st FICM will pay tribute to the extraordinary screenwriter, producer and director Fernando de Fuentes, one of the greatest representatives of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. Nine of his films produced between 1933 and 1944 will be screened.

Inspired by the excellent idea of French director Bertrand Tavernier, who was with us in 2007, we will carry out the "Imaginary Mexico" program. This year, thanks to the support of Ehsan Khoshbakht, Il Cinema Ritrovato and MoMA, we will have a special program by filmmaker Henry King, including the films he shot in Morelia.

As part of the Indigenous Peoples Forum, the first Development Film Lab for Indigenous Filmmakers of Latin America will be held with the aim of reaffirming FICM's commitment to the work of indigenous filmmakers, through the creation of collective training spaces that contribute to the development of their film proposals.

Check the schedule and get your tickets at www.moreliafilmfest.com.