Philippe Claudel Chaired a Meeting of the "Screenplay Writing Program" by FICM and the French Embassy in Mexico

Berenice Andrade @MelcochaBarata

As part of the 19th Morelia International Film Festival (FICM), French director Philippe Claudel led a meeting with the filmmakers selected to be part of the first edition of the "Screenplay Writing Program" organized by FICM in alliance with the French Embassy in Mexico.

This program was designed with the aim of contributing to the training and professional updating of Mexican filmmakers.

Philippe Claudel chaired a meeting for the "Film script writing advisory program" of FICM and the French Embassy in Mexico

During the meeting, in which the founder and general director of FICM, Daniela Michel; the scriptwriter Marina Stavenhagen; and directors Alejandro Iglesias Mendizábal, Astrid Rondero, Faride Schroeder and Alejandro Zuno, whose projects were selected in the program, were present. Philippe Claudel congratulated the thematic and formal freedom that he found in the scripts of the participants, and on the strong characters they have developed.

“I often disagree with the producers because they say that the viewer has to identify with the character. But as a spectator I don't need to identify, what I need is to be attached, to be interested, especially with characters who are very far from me, far from my life, my character, my geography. So I think that here the important thing is not the phenomenon of identification, but of interest. If we don't take that into account at the beginning of a film, I don't know if we are going to be able to keep the viewer for an hour and a half."

In its first edition in 2021, the "Screenplay Writing Program" selected the following projects to be mentored by the French screenwriter and writer Philippe Claudel:

• Estudio para personaje hueco, by Alejandro Iglesias Mendizábal
• Rambler, by Fernanda Valadez and Astrid Rondero
• Los amantes de este mundo, by Faride Schroeder
• Kenya, by Alejandro Zuno

Philippe Claudel is the screenwriter of Yves Angelo's At My Finger Tips and Grey Souls. He also wrote I've Loved You So Long, Tous les soleils, Before the Winter Chill, and A Childhood, four screenplays which he also directed. I've Loved You So Long won the Best Foreign Film Award at the BAFTA's in 2009. As a writer, Philippe Claudel won the Renaudot award for Grey Souls; the France-Télévision award for J'abandonne; and the Goncourt des Lycéens for Le Rapport de Brodeck.