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Michoacán, cradle of great artists

Talent is in abundance in the Tarascan state. There are many national and international acclaimed actors, actresses, and directors who were born in the state of Michoacán, cradle of the Purépecha culture, located in the western region of the country.

It is no surprise that great figures of the Mexican cinema like Felipe Arriaga, actor and singer born in the municipality of Cotija de la Paz also known as “El principe Purépecha,” or Julio Alemán regarded as the first Mexican actor who participated in the first national produced soap opera come from a such rich state in cosmovisions and ways of thinking.

Important voices of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema such as Lilia Prado, born in Sahuayo who worked with surrealist filmmaker Luis Buñuel, and Fanny Cano, Mexican film and television actress and producer born in Huetamo de Núñez in 1944, come from the state. Mario Moreno “Cantinflas'', mime, actor, producer, screenwriter, and comedian, was also born in Cotija, Michoacán.

Largely due to the impulse of the Morelia International Film Festival (FICM), the film industry of the country and the world has turned its attention towards it, one of the most iconic states of the country, therefore inspiring some productions such as the animated feature film Coco (2017, dir. Lee Unkrich, Adrián Molina), which inaugurated the 15th edition.

Furthermore, in the Official Selection of the FICM, within the Michoacán Selection, every year the Michoacán community is encouraged to participate with their projects. In this 20th edition of the festival, 11 titles are participating, nine of which are short films and two of which are feature-length documentaries.

Filmmakers, screenwriters, cinematographers, musicians, and engineers find a space to talk about their interests and concerns through cinema, like Jorge Sistos, who participated in the 11th edition of the FICM with his short film Secreto (2013), in the 12th edition of the FICM with his fiction short film Juego de tenis (2014), and in the 14th edition of the FICM with his short film La soledad de las imágenes (2016), which also participated in the Tel Aviv International LGBT Film Festival in Israel (TLVFest), among other festivals.

In this 20th edition of the FICM, Michoacán filmmakers such as Sunya Itzia Madrigal, who competes with the documentary short film Habitar (2021), or Anna Soler Cepriá. who also competes with the fiction short film I Am a Forest (2022), are in attendance.

Another great figure born in this state is Damian Alcazar, five-time winner of the Ariel Award for Best Actor awarded by the Mexican Academy of Film Arts and Sciences (AMACC). He was also a special guest at the FICM in 2011, where he received the Michoacan Homage. In the 20th edition of the FICM the actor will be back to present El poderoso Victoria (2021, dir. Raúl Ramón).