The Morelia International Film Festival Announces the Members of the Jury for its 23rd edition

-PRESS RELEASE-

 September 17, 2025

The Morelia International Film Festival Announces the Members of the Jury for its 23^rd edition

• Multi-award-winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay returns to FICM to preside over the jury for the Mexican Feature Film section.

The Morelia International Film Festival (FICM) presents the prominent figures from the international film industry who will make up the jury for its 23^rd edition and who will decide which films will be the winners of the Official Selection of #FICM2025.

The jury for the Mexican Feature Film section will be chaired by American filmmaker Ava DuVernay and will include renowned Spanish filmmaker and Oscar® nominee Pablo Berger, who will present his Oscar®-nominated film Robot Dreams at a special outdoor screening; David Linde, co-founder of Focus Features and producer to acclaimed filmmakers such as Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro González Iñárritu; and renowned Italian filmmaker Andrea Pallaoro. 

DuVernay, a trailblazing filmmaker and storyteller, has redefined contemporary cinema through her powerful, socially conscious work. Her acclaimed projects include Selma, 13th, A Wrinkle in Time, Middle of Nowhere and the groundbreaking limited series When They See Us. A recipient of multiple Emmy and Peabody Awards, she is the first Black woman to direct a film nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. DuVernay continues to push boundaries as one of the most influential voices in film and television today.

"The Morelia International Film Festival is honored to have Ava DuVernay—a filmmaker with boundless creative energy and a cutting-edge vision—preside over the festival jury. Mexican cinema will benefit greatly from her perspective. It will be an immense privilege to welcome her back to Morelia,” said Daniela Michel, founder and General Director of FICM.

“To serve as Jury President of Morelia this year is a true privilege. I admire the power of Mexican cinema. Having been shaped so beautifully by Alejandro Ramírez Magaña and Daniela Michel, the essential place of this wonderful festival within the film world cannot be overstated,” DuVernay shared. “I’m eager to join my esteemed colleagues on the jury and to once again be embraced by Morelia’s warmth and wonder.”

The jury for the Mexican Documentary section will be comprised of legendary academic and film critic B. Ruby Rich; acclaimed Romanian filmmaker Andrei Ujică, who will present a special screening of TWST: Things We Said Today at the 23^rd FICM; and noted film curator Kathy Geritz of the Pacific Film Archive. 

The jury for the Mexican Short Film section will include the coordinator of the Cannes Critics' Week short film selection committee, Léo Ortuno; Argentine filmmaker and Berlin Film Festival award winner Iván Fund, who won an award at the last Berlin Film Festival for his film El mensaje, which he will present at this year's FICM; and Lima Film Festival director Edward Venero.

Finally, the jury for the Michoacán Section will consist of Fernanda Becerril, director of FICUNAM; Dinorath Ramírez, general director of the Film Training Center (CCC); and Laura Alderete, director of Mexican Film Promotion at the Mexican Film Institute (IMCINE).

The members of the jury will evaluate the 102 films that make up the Official Selection and determine which of them will be awarded the various cash and in-kind prizes, as well as the Ojo, a sculpture created by Michoacán artist Javier Marín.

Remember that the winners of the fiction, documentary, and animated short films, as well as the documentary feature film, will be eligible for Oscar® nominations.

Learn more about the members of the jury for the 23^rd FICM

Ava DuVernay

Ava DuVernay is an Academy Award nominee and winner of Emmy, BAFTA, Sundance, Image and Peabody Awards. Her films include Selma, the first film directed by an African-American woman to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar; 13th, which made her the first African-American woman to be nominated for an Oscar in a feature directing category; Middle of Nowhere, which earned her Sundance’s Best Director Prize; and Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time, which made her the highest-grossing Black woman director in American box office history. DuVernay’s four-part series When They See Us was honored with 16 Emmy nominations. Her critically acclaimed series Queen Sugar took its place in history as the longest-running Black family drama series with 88 episodes across seven seasons. With her latest feature film Origin, she made history again as the first African-American woman director to compete at the Venice Biennale in its 100-year history.

A champion of independent voices, DuVernay founded the narrative change collective ARRAY in 2011, recipient of the Peabody Institutional Award. She was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Morehouse College and Yale University. Her portrait was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery in recognition of her impact on American culture, and she received the Smithsonian Great Americans Medal in 2025.

DuVernay serves on the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, representing the directors branch, and holds leadership roles with the Directors Guild of America and the American Film Institute advisory boards. Her cultural influence is showcased with the making of a sold-out Ava DuVernay Barbie doll, a Funko Pop figurine, and a custom Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor. She lives and works in her hometown of Los Angeles, California.

Pablo Berger

Pablo Berger is one of Spain’s most acclaimed film directors. His debut feature film, Torremolinos 73 (2003), was an international auteur success and received four nominations for the Goya Awards. 

His second feature, Blancanieves (2013), garnered even greater success, winning over one hundred awards around the world, including ten Goyas, the Jury’s Special Award at the San Sebastián Film Festival, three nominations for the European Film Awards, an Ariel for the Best Ibero-American Film, a nomination for the César Awards for Best Foreign Film, and it was selected as Spain’s submission for the Best International Feature Film Oscar^®. 

His following film, Abracadabra (2017), was shortlisted as Spain’s entry for the 2018 Oscars^® and was nominated for eight Goya Awards. 

His most recent film, Robot Dreams (2023), premiered in the Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival and won, among others, the Grand Prix Contrechamp at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, the Best Independent Film Award at the Annie Awards, the European Film Award for Best Animated Feature Film, two Platino Awards for Best Animation and Best Music, as well as two Goya Awards for Best Animated Film and Best Adapted Screenplay. It was also nominated for an Oscar® for Best Animated Feature. Robot Dreams was released to great acclaim in theaters around the world. In Mexico, it reached nearly one million viewers and was the most watched film of 2024 at the Cineteca Nacional. 

Pablo Berger is a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters of France and holds the Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts of Spain. He was a jury member at the Annecy Animation Festival 2025.

David Linde

David Linde’s background spans production, global distribution and overseeing the complex but vital work of accelerating impact and narrative change in collaboration with films and television series, as well as building multiple companies from the ground up. He has served as the CEO of Participant, the chairman of Universal Pictures, co-founder and President of specialty film studio Focus Features, partner in the New York production company Good Machine and owner of Lava Bear Films, where he produced multi-Oscar^® nominee Arrival.

During his tenure at Participant, the company’s productions included Oscar^® Best Picture winners Spotlightand Green Book;American Factory, Oscar^® winner for Best Documentary Feature; and Roma and A Fantastic Woman, Oscar^® winners for Best International Feature Film; as well as acclaimed, award-winning long-form content including Steve James’ docuseries America to Me and Ava DuVernay’s When They See Us.

Linde has long championed the voice of signature filmmakers, having worked on multiple films with Pedro Almodóvar, Sofia Coppola, Alfonso Cuarón, Todd Haynes, Ang Lee, Alejandro González Iñárritu and Tom McCarthy, among many others.

He is currently the strategic advisor to multiple film-centric companies in the United States and Europe, as well as the Executive Producer on multiple upcoming films, including on Sebastian Lelio’s La Ola, Kahlil Joseph’s BLKNWS and Bonni Cohen’s documentary In Waves and War.

Linde serves on the Board of Directors of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts/North America, the American Film Institute’s Board of Trustees, the Board of Directors of Film Independent and the Advisory Council of Brooklyn College’s Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema.

Andrea Pallaoro

Born in Trento, Italy, Andrea Pallaoro holds an MFA in Film Directing from the California Institute of the Arts and a BA from Hampshire College. 

His first feature film, Medeas, starring Catalina Sandino Moreno and Brian O’Byrne, premiered at the 70th Venice Film Festival and won several awards at prestigious international film festivals, including Marrakech, Tbilisi, Palm Springs, and CamerImage. 

Hannah, Pallaoro’s second feature film, starring Charlotte Rampling, had its world premiere in the Official Competition of the 74th Venice Film Festival, where Rampling won the Coppa Volpi for Best Actress. Hannah went on to receive many international accolades, including a César nomination for Best Foreign Film. 

His most recent film, Monica, starring Trace Lysette, Patricia Clarkson, Adriana Barraza, and Emily Browning, had its world premiere in the Official Competition of the 79th Venice Film Festival and went on to win numerous prestigious international awards. 

Pallaoro has served on the juries of prominent world-renowned film festivals, including Venice, Chicago, and Black Nights – Tallinn. He lives between Los Angeles and New York City. 

B. Ruby Rich

B. Ruby Rich is a longtime critic, professor, editor, and curator who is now based in Paris and San Francisco. 

As a professor emerita at University of California, Santa Cruz, she co-founded the Social Documentation graduate program, training students in documentary production as well as theory/history. 

As editor-in-chief, she led Film Quarterly, the oldest US film journal, through a decade of innovation and commitment to documentary as well as to other forms of film and video. As a critic, today she contributes regularly to Sight and Sound (UK) and other outlets. 

Her books include Chick Flicks: Theories and Memories of the Feminist Film Movement as well as New Queer Cinema: The Director’s Cut (both Duke University Press). 

She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), Documentary Branch. A frequent presence at film festivals, her most recent jury service was at IDFA in Amsterdam in 2024. Recipient of multiple awards and fellowships, she was honored at the Barbican (London) with a landmark series entitled Being Ruby Rich in 2017.

Andrei Ujică

Andrei Ujică (Timisoara, Romania, 1951) is a professor of Media Studies and the creator of films that are considered seminal classics in film history and that set a new landmark worldwide in the field of found footage. 

Videograms of a Revolution (co-directed with Harun Farocki in 1992) has become a milestone in terms of the relationship between the media and political power in Europe at the end of the Communist era. 

Out of the Present (1995) chronicles the prolonged space journey of Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev. It was compared to major films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey or Solaris and is the best-known non-fiction European film of the 1990s. 

The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceaușescu (2010), which completes the trilogy dedicated to the end of Communism in Romania, has garnered numerous awards worldwide. 

His latest project, TWST: Things We Said Today, is the archival reconstruction of The Beatles’ most famous North American performance.

Kathy Geritz

Kathy Geritz was the Film Curator at the Berkeley Art Museum•Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), with a focus on experimental, documentary, and independent cinema. Before retiring in 2023 after four decades, she presented hundreds of series exploring world cinema from the silent era to the present. 

She taught film courses at the University of California at Berkeley for twenty years, as well as both an internship and an occasional graduate course in film curating. Geritz was the International Film Curator in residence at the Len Lye Center in New Zealand, and did special presentations at the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Ambulante Documentary Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, the Brakhage Center Symposium, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Flaherty Symposium. 

She is a coeditor of Radical Light: Alternative Film and Video in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945-2000, and cocurator of the related film series and tour.

Léo Ortuno

Léo Ortuno is a journalist and film critic who writes for Court-Circuit (Arte), Viva Cinéma (Ciné+), Bande à Part, and So Film. He also works as a programmer and is a member of the selection committees for the Poitiers Film Festival and the Contis Film Festival, and hosts discussions and Q&A sessions with filmmakers. 

For the past two years, Léo Ortuno has been part of the selection committee for La Semaine de la Critique, and in 2024, he became its coordinator.

Iván Fund

Iván Fund was born in San Cristóbal, Argentina, in 1984. His films have been screened at festivals such as the Berlinale (Silver Bear, 2025), Cannes (Un Certain Regard), Venice, San Sebastián, Rotterdam, Viennale, BFI, Busan, BAFICI, Havana, Neighboring Scenes at Lincoln Center, Mar del Plata and Nantes, among others, where he has received various awards.

Edward Venero

Edward Venero Carrasco (Cusco, Peru, 1986) is a designer, educator, and cultural manager. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Art with a minor in Graphic Design from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) and complemented his education with a master’s degree in University Policy and Management from the same institution, as well as postgraduate studies at the University of Barcelona. He is currently an associate professor at the Faculty of Art and Design at PUCP, where he created and directed the Art, Fashion, and Textile Design program.

He is the creator of VNRO, a Peruvian fashion brand that fuses contemporary aesthetics with cultural identity. With this brand, he has developed collections presented both nationally and internationally, and has established collaborations with major global franchises such as Nickelodeon (SpongeBob SquarePants), Sanrio (Hello Kitty), and MTV. He has also worked with the retail sector, notably on the Denimlab+VNRO line for Falabella, inspired by chicha culture.

His professional approach is deeply marked by research, sustainability, and education. He believes that design should not depend on momentary inspiration, but rather on thoughtful and strategic construction. He actively promotes responsible consumption, ethical fashion, and inclusion as fundamental principles of his practice, focusing on fashion committed to social development.

Venero understands design as a tool for cultural transformation. Through his work, he invites reflection on how clothing is a way of constructing identity and belonging. With VNRO, he seeks to project a diverse, rich, and contemporary image of Peru, with plans to expand into other Latin American markets such as Colombia and Chile.

“We are no longer just talking about fashion, but about development, inclusion, and sustainability,” he has stated. With a critical, creative, and deeply connected perspective, Edward Venero represents a new generation of designers who not only create clothing but also build culture.

Since May 2025, Edward Venero has been the director of the Lima Film Festival and the PUCP Cultural Center.

Fernanda Becerril Chávez

Audiovisual producer with a degree from UNAM and fourteen years of experience in cultural management and project coordination. She has worked in festivals such as Campus Movie Fest, Fiesta Internacional de Cine SLP, Festival del Puerto and, for nine editions, in FICUNAM, where she is currently executive director. She has also collaborated with the Mexican Network of Film Festivals and participated as a jury member in multiple film festivals.

Her career to date includes the production of cultural and film events organized by UNAM, such as Festival Cantares, the opera El Gran Macabro and Café Tacvba’s Unplugged, as well as the coordination of projects such as Picnic Bajo la Sombra and Síntesis. She has worked in the production of the short film Lady Lázaro and the feature documentary La infinita.

Her work in film education and dissemination has led her to facilitate workshops and speaking at international festivals.

Dinorath Ramírez González

Dinorath Ramírez González is a professional who has gained recognition in the fields of academia, the media, and film. Her training in Media and Film Studies is complemented by a master’s degree in Neuroeducation. 

She has worked at the intersection of film education and emotional health, leading major projects such as El Cine a la Escuela (www.elcinealaescuela.com), a program implemented in public high schools in Mexico, in conjunction with the Secretariat of Public Education. In the academic field, as director, she has designed the curriculum for bachelor’s and master’s degree studies, leading a team of film professors. Her experience includes the consolidation of the FOPROCINE fund for film production in schools, as well as her work as manager and evaluator of ELEMENTIA’s internal fund for EFICINE. As a FONCA tutor, she accompanies projects in co-investments and has been a jury member for FOCINE and EFICINE.

She has a solid track record in managing and directing film projects, for which she has obtained support from institutions such as FONCA and IMCINE, and she has directed content for a number of institutions, mainly in the public sector, highlighting her ability to combine art and education for the benefit of society.

Laura Alderete

With over fifteen years of experience in the film industry, Laura Alderete is recognized for her outstanding career in programming, distribution, and exhibition of independent cinema, with a special focus on Mexican and Latin American auteur cinema. She served as Programming Coordinator for the UNAM International Film Festival (FICUNAM) for over ten years and as a programmer for its last six editions, specifically for the Aciertos: International Film Schools Meeting section. She was a member of the feature-length documentary selection committee for the Morelia International Film Festival and served as programming director at La Casa del Cine MX, promoting diverse, high-quality cinema with a focus on independent film. As co-founder of Latinoamericana, she promoted the distribution and screening of Spanish-language films, managing commercial and cultural releases in theaters nationwide. She is currently Director of Mexican Film Promotion at the Mexican Film Institute.

#FICM2025 will be held from October 10 to 19 with in-person screenings in Morelia, Michoacán, and virtual screenings via nuestrocine.mx. There will be pre-opening screenings on October 9, and the opening screening will take place on October 10.

More information and details about the program and ticket sales will be revealed soon at www.moreliafilmfest.com and on FICM's social media accounts.

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