09 · 04 · 25

The Morelia International Film Festival Reveals the Program for its 23rd Edition

During a press conference in Mexico City, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Batel, vice president of the Morelia International Film Festival (FICM) alongside founder and director, Daniela Michel, revealed the program for the 23^rd edition of FICM, which will run from October 10 to 19, with pre-opening screenings on October 9, 2025.

The 23^rd FICM, presented by Mapfre, will hold presential screenings at Cinépolis Morelia Centro, Cinépolis VIP Plaza Las Américas, Teatro Mariano Matamoros, Teatro Melchor Ocampo, Centro Cultural Universitario, and Plaza Benito Juárez in Morelia. As well as the Teatro Emperador Caltzontzin in Pátzcuaro and free online screenings through the Mexican Film Institute’s (IMCINE) nuestrocine.mx.

OFFICIAL SELECTION

The most essential part of the Morelia International Film Festival (FICM) are the competing sections: Michoacán Section, Mexican Short Film, Mexican Documentary, and Mexican Feature Film. There will be 102 films participating this year, including 15 entries in the Michoacán Section, 62 in the Mexican Short Film Section, 14 in the Mexican Documentary Section, and 11 in the Mexican Feature Film Section.

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.

This year’s Mexican Feature Film Section:

Adiós, amor | Indra Villaseñor Amador
Los amantes se despiden con la mirada | Rigoberto Perezcano
Ángeles | Paula Markovitch
En el camino | David Pablos
El diablo fuma (y guarda las cabezas de los cerillos quemados en la misma caja) | Ernesto Martínez Bucio
El guardián | Nuria Ibáñez
Juana | Daniel Giménez Cacho
La reserva | Pablo Pérez Lombardini
Si no ardemos, cómo iluminar la noche | Kim Torres
Olmo | Fernando Eimbcke
Vainilla | Mayra Hermosillo

Check out the complete Official Selection.

OPENING CEREMONY FILM

Thanks to MUBI's support, Kleber Mendonça Filho's extraordinary film The Secret Agent will be screened at the Opening Ceremony of the 23rd edition of FICM. The event will take place on the evening of October 10, 2025, in Morelia, with the acclaimed Brazilian director in attendance. The Secret Agent won awards for Best Director and Best Actor at the last Cannes Film Festival.

GALA SCREENINGS

With the support of Netflix, we will present the premiere of Rodrigo García's Las locuras, with the director and part of the cast in attendance.

We also have the privilege of welcoming the following special guests: Juliette Binoche, returning to Morelia this year to present her documentary In-I: In Motion; Iranian director Jafar Panahi, presenting It Was Just an Accident, which won the Palme d'Or at the last Cannes Film Festival and makes Panahi one of the few filmmakers in history to have won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, the Golden Lion at Venice, and the Golden Bear at Berlin; Lucrecia Martel, back in Morelia to present Nuestra tierra; Oliver Laxe presenting his award-winning Sirât; and Robin Campillo showing Enzo, co-directed with the great Laurent Cantet.

GUESTS

We are also honored to welcome Alexandre O. Philippe, who will present Kim Novak’s Vertigo; Tomás Corredor, who will present Noviembre; Javier Espada, who will present his new documentary Memoria de Los Olvidados; and Michael Almereyda, presenting John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office.

NATIONAL PREMIERES

This year's Mexican premieres will include:

Fiction

Berezada | Danae Reynaud
Cobre | Nicolás Pereda
(No sé) Cómo ser | Salvador Espinosa
No me sigas | Ximena García Lecuona, Eduardo Lecuona
Sobriedad me estás matando | Raúl Campos
Soy Frankelda | Arturo Ambriz, Roy Ambriz

Documentary

Asco: Without Permission | Travis Gutiérrez Senger
Gerry Adams: A Ballymurphy Man | Trisha Ziff
La noche eterna del Baby O | Emilio Maillé
PARA VIVIR: El implacable tiempo de Pablo Milanés | Fabien Pisani

SPECIAL NATIONAL SCREENINGS

Feature Films

Amores perros | Alejandro González Iñárritu
Atado de años | Miguel Bonilla
Centinelas del silencio | Robert Amram
Deshilando luz | Valentina Pelayo
Héroes verdes México | Jordi Mariscal
Pulse of the Continent | Eric González
La ruta que somos | César Flores Correa
Siempre tendremos Acapulco | Presentado por Canal 22

Short Films

Amor Chiquito | Iván Lipkies, Ivette Eugenia Lipkies Velasco
Bump | André Leshé
Lucky, Lucky Yume | Selma Cervantes
En la quietud de la noche | Aristides Mantilla

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERES

Fiction

All That's Left of You | Cherien Dabis
Alpha | Julia Ducournau
Amélie et la métaphysique des tubes | Maïlys Vallade, Liane-Cho Han
Arco | Ugo Bienvenu
Aún es de noche en Caracas | Mariana Rondón, Marité Ugás
Bugonia | Yorgos Lanthimos
The Chronology of Water| Kristen Stewart
Die, My Love | Lynne Ramsay
Dreams (Sex Love) | Dag Johan Haugerud
The Disappearance of Josef Mengele | Kirill Serebrennikov
Eleanor the Great | Scarlett Johansson
Eternity | David Freyne
Father Mother Sister Brother | Jim Jarmusch
Frankenstein | Guillermo del Toro
The Girl Who Stole Time | Ao Yu, Tienan Zhou
La Gloria | Joseph Todd Walker
Hiedra | Ana Cristina Barragán
Jeunes Mères | Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Kiss of the Spider Woman | Bill Condon
The Little Sister | Hafsia Herzi
The Love that Remains | Hlynur Pálmason
Magellan | Lav Díaz
The Mastermind | Kelly Reichardt
El mensaje | Iván Fund
Miroirs No. 3 | Christian Petzold
La misteriosa mirada del Flamenco | Diego Céspedes
My Father's Shadow | Akinola Davies Jr.
No Other Choice | Park Chan-wook
Nouvelle Vague | Richard Linklater
Noviembre | Tomás Corredor
Once Upon a Time in Gaza | Arab Nasser, Tarzan Nasser
Un poeta | Simon Mesa Soto
The President's Cake | Hasan Hadi
Resurrection | Bi Gan
Romería | Carla Simón
Sentimental Value | Joachim Trier
Sorry, Baby | Eva Victor
Sound of Falling | Mascha Schilinski
La Virgen de la Tosquera | Laura Casabé
What Marielle Knows | Frédéric Hambalek

Documentary

2000 meters to Andriivka | Mstyslav Chernov
Bulle Ogier, portrait d’une étoile cachée | Eugénie Grandval
El canto de las manos | María Valverde
John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office | Michael Almereyda, Courtney Stephens
Kim Novak’s Vertigo | Alexandre O. Philippe
Memoria de Los Olvidados | Javier Espada
Selena y Los Dinos | Isabel Castro
The True Story of Tamara de Lempicka & The Art of Survival | Julie Rubio

SPECIAL INTERNATIONAL SCREENINGS

Feature Films

Beatles’64 | David Tedeschi
Restoring a Legacy | Laura Furcic
Sandbag Dam | Čejen Černić Čanak
Sin aliento | Jean-Luc Godard
Vertigo | Alfred Hitchcock

Short Films

Alok | Alexandra Hedison
Red Sands | Romina Cenisio

SPECIAL PROGRAMS

María Félix Retrospective

María Félix Retrospective Thanks to the invaluable support of the National Film Archive, the UNAM Film Library, Fundación Televisa, and Carlos Vasallo / Video Universal, we will pay tribute to the legendary actress María Félix “La Doña,” considered the greatest international star of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, with a retrospective. This tribute, including collaborations with directors of the stature of Emilio Fernández, Julio Bracho, Fernando de Fuentes, and Roberto Gavaldón, will present seven of her films from 1943 to 1955.

As part of the tribute to “La Doña,” the 23rd FICM, together with Fundación Televisa, will present the photo exhibit “A Goddess for a Goddess: María Félix in the Fundación Televisa Collection” at the Andador Hidalgo in Morelia’s Historic Center.

Check out the films in this year's Special Program.

Restored Classics

Muñecos infernales (1961) | Benito Alazraki
Pedro Páramo (1967) | Carlos Velo
El callejón de los milagros (1995) | Jorge Fons
Sangre (2005) | Amat Escalante

The Indigenous Peoples Forum

The Indigenous Peoples Forum Since 2007, as part of the Indigenous Peoples Forum, FICM presents a selection of short and feature films, both fiction and documentary, that offer insight into the complexity of each indigenous community’s cosmovision in an ever -shifting social and cultural context. These films address urgent issues on the global agenda, such as climate change, the increasing fragility of natural environments, migration, identity, gender equality, and violence.

In addition to showing these films, the Forum will host spaces for conversation that hope to contribute to a collective reflection on the transformative roles film and audiovisual media play in our society.

This year's Indigenous Peoples Forum will feature the following films:

Feature Documentary

Boca Vieja | Yovegami Ascona Mora (ayuuk)
Los que dicen ¡No! | Ángel Froilán Flores Martínez (totonaca)

Fiction Short Films

40+ | Yolanda Cruz (chatina)
Amare | Balam Toscano (afrodescendiente)
Oc ni temiki (Sigo soñando) | Misael Alva (nahua)
Techiq | Missael Sánchez Arce (nahua)
Cortometraje documental
Cremita de coco | de Martha Uc (maya)
Mujer de barro | Concepción Vásquez (ayuuk)
La piel de nuestra memoria | de Edmundo U. Galicia Aguirre (chinanteco)

Michoacan Section

Mo patiaj | Raúl Máximo Cortés (p’urhépecha)

In addition, as part of the 2025 Indigenous Peoples Forum, through Morelia Pro and with the support of the Netflix Fund for Creative Equity in Mexico and Cultural Survival, the 23^rd FICM will host the Third Development Film Project Workshop for Filmmakers of Indigenous and African Descent.

This workshop, taking place from October 8 to 12, in Morelia, aims to support the professional development of ten filmmakers from different communities and regions of Mexico so their work in progress can be supervised by experts in the field.

More info on the Development Film Project Workshop for Filmmakers of Indigenous and African Descent.

50 Years of CCC

We will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Film Training Center (CCC) with the program Pioneers: The First Female Filmmakers of the CCC.

Critic’s Week

As part of the partnership that the Morelia International Film Festival (FICM) has maintained with the Critics’ Week at the Cannes Film Festival since 2003, the 23^rd FICM will present a selection of films screened at the 64^th Critics’ Week. Ava Cahen, Artistic Director of this parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival, will be in attendance at the screenings. The seven films that participated in last year's Critics' Week competition will make up the program of the 23^rd FICM dedicated to this section of Cannes:

Ciudad sin sueño | Guillermo Galoe
Imago | Déni Oumar Pitsaev
Kika | Alexe Poukine
Left-Handed Girl | Shih-Ching Tsou
Nino | Pauline Loquès
Reedland | Sven Bresser
A Useful Ghost | Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, ganadora del Gran Premio de la Crítica

More information on the Critics' Week at FICM.

Jean Vigo Award

L'engloutie (The Girl in the Snow) | Louise Hémon
Vingt Dieux (Holy Cow) | Louise Courvoisier
Car Wash | Laïs Decaster

México Imaginario

Curated by Ehsan Khoshbakht, we will present the Mexico Imaginario program, which this year is dedicated to Rouben Mamoulian.

Love Me Tonight (1932)
The Gay Desperado (1936)
The Mark of Zorro (1940)
Blood and Sand (1941)

130 Years of Cinema

Lumière, l’aventure continue | Thierry Frémaux

Curaçao International Film Festival

Feature Films

Lazaro and the Shark: Cuba Under the Surface| William Sabourin O’Reilly
Listen to the Voices | Maxime Jean-Baptiste
Querido trópico | Ana Endara

Short Films

Mangel | Gianno Silavne
Mas Ku Palabra | Jordan Daniel
Sunny | German Gruber Jr
Up the River | Leon de Levita
Zwarte Ibis | Black Speaks Back

ANIMÉXICO Scholarship Program

La bestia | Marlijn van Nuenen, Ram Tamez, Alfredo Gerard Kuttikatt
Descansa en paz | Deborah Balboa, Karien Benz, Kai-Hsun Chan, Aparna Hegde, Yuk Yan Tsoi
The Famous Last Show | Celia Alcina, Fuxuan Deng, Pontheera Nimmanakiat, Ané Quintana, Hongru Su
Layla | Oscar Baron, Emma Ferréol, Rachel Gitlevich, Diego Hernández-Blanco, Narda Rodríguez, Lucille Reynaud
Nube | Diego Alonso Sánchez de la Barquera Estrada, Christian Arredondo Narváez
El ombligo de la luna | Sara António, Julia Grupińska, Bokang Koatja, Tian Westraad, Ezequiel Garibay

Noir City Presents

Thanks to Eddie Muller and the Noir City Film Festival for their invaluable support, we will be presenting a special program of American film noir featuring three titles.

Deadline at Dawn (1946) | Harold Clurman, William Cameron Menzies
City That Never Sleeps (1953) | John H. Auer
99 River Street (1954) | Phil Karlson

IMPULSO MORELIA 11

Impulso Morelia, a space dedicated to promoting Mexican feature films in different stages of post-production, generating international visibility and creative dialogue with industry experts, will hold its 11th edition this year.

The panel will include the artistic director of Critics' Week at the Cannes Film Festival, Ava Cahen; filmmaker, producer, and documentary promoter Cristian Calónico (currently the director of Estudios Churubusco); Argentine producer and founder of Rei Pictures (Zama, Los Colonos, El jockey, Nuestra tierra, among other important films) Benjamín Domenech; prominent film critic and programmer of Giornate degli Autori at the Venice Film Festival Cédric Succivalli; and Alberto Valverde, programmer and coordinator of Madrid's new international co-production forum, ECAM Forum.

Check out the films selected to participate in Impulso Morelia 11.

QUEER PALM LAB

Thanks to the support of the French Embassy in Mexico, the French Ministry of Culture, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the French Institute in Latin America (IFAL), the second edition of the Queer Palm Lab writing residency will also be held. This is a mentoring initiative for filmmakers who are working on their first feature film project with queer themes and/or characters.

#FICM2025 ACCREDITATION

This year, FICM attendees, including film industry members and their guests, film buffs, and friends of the festival can purchase the #FICM2025 Accreditation. This will allow them to redeem 6 or 11 tickets and give them access to the last-minute line for screenings at the 23rd edition of the Morelia International Film Festival. The #FICM2025 Accreditation is now available for purchase on the Cinépolis website and app.

Find out how to get the #FICM2025 ACCREDITATION.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We would like to thank the Government of the State of Michoacán, which, year after year, offers us its unconditional support to make this great Morelia International Film Festival possible through its Ministry of Tourism. Our gratitude goes out to the Secretary of Tourism, Roberto Monroy García, and his entire team, as well as to the State Ministry of Culture and its secretary, Tamara Sosa. We also appreciate the invaluable support of the Morelia Convention and Exhibition Center.

We are especially grateful to the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo for its kind support. Many of the festival's official venues are made possible thanks to the enormous generosity of the university's president, Dr. Yarabí Ávila González, the Department of University Outreach and Extension, and all the staff who make it possible for us to use their facilities during the festival.

We would also like to thank, again, the Honorable City Council of Morelia and its Secretaries of Culture and Tourism for their invaluable and generous support, which helps make FICM possible.

We would also like to thank the Mexican Ministry of Culture, Cinépolis, the Mexican Film Institute, the National Film Archive, the UNAM Film Library, the Televisa Foundation, all our media partners, and each of the organizations that have made this event possible for their support.

In addition, we wish to extend our special thanks to the French Embassy, the Spanish Embassy, Acción Cultural Española, UniFrance, Cultural Survival, Canal 22, Canal Once, Cinépolis Distribución, Nuestro Cine Mx, MUBI, Cine Caníbal, Zima Entertainment, Netflix, Piano, Sony Pictures México, Permanencia Voluntaria, Video Universal, Tulip, Universal Pictures International México, Nueva Era, Corazón Films, as well as MAPFRE, Mundet, CPKC de México, Cerveza Victoria, and José Cuervo Tradicional.

Finally, we would like to thank the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Mexico, through which we are expanding our collaboration to promote the recognition of diversity, respect for differences, the promotion of gender equality and non-discrimination principles, and the prevention of sex and gender-based violence.

Through these initiatives, FICM strives to promote people-centered social and community development. Hoping to be a space where other ways of experiencing cinema can be developed, with a focus on inclusion, as well as being a safe space for all those who come together there.

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