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Lorenzo Vigas Presented La caja and Unveiled His Honorary Armchair at the 19th FICM

Gustavo R. Gallardo

Filmmaker Lorenzo Vigas presented La caja (2021) at his Grand Gala in the 19th Morelia International Film Festival (FICM). Joined by the festival's president, Alejandro Ramírez, and the festival's founder and general director, Daniela Michel, Vigas unveiled an armchair with his name that distinguishes him as one of the festival's guests of honor.

"He is a friend who has already presented several works at the festival. He has just been at the Venice Film Festival presenting La caja to excellent reviews," said Alejandro Ramírez, adding that it was a pleasure to receive the film in rooms filled with people.

The filmmaker said he feels at home at FICM: "There has been a relationship with the festival through my career since I presented my short and how it has grown, and what this festival represents for Latin America. I am proud and flattered to be here and happy that you've come to the premiere of the film. It is the first screening in Mexico."

Honorary Armchair Unveiling

One of the great traditions is the unveiling of honorary armchairs, with which directors that FICM admires and respects are recognized, which the president of the festival, Alejandro Ramírez, made known to Lorenzo Vigas during the ceremony.

"What a surprise! Should I sit down? I'll be here for the whole show. I am going to stay here. Thank you very much," said the Venezuelan-born filmmaker as he was applauded.

After the screening, Lorenzo Vigas answered some questions from the audience about the film, particularly about its screening at the Venice Film Festival: "It is very hard, it is wonderful, it puts enormous pressure on you because you are no longer there, but you have to prove that you can handle an important work. It was thanks to that pressure I pushed the project, and I made myself as demanding as possible."

Lorenzo Vigas has academic training as a molecular biologist, so he was asked about how one goes from that to making movies: "It's a mystery! I was passionate about science, biology, genetics, but from a very young age I had a great passion for cinema. I watched a lot of movies, I shot a lot of homemade shorts with my high school friends, all of them lousy, but we had a lot of fun, then that became something and there came a time when the need to make movies was much greater than the need to do scientific research."