.:Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia:.

Mexican Short Film Jury

Lizzie Francke

Born in London, Francke studied English Literature at East Anglia University. She began her career working as a programmer for the Everyman Cinema and Electric Pictures, and was involved in the re-releases of such classics as La Dolce Vita, Breathless, and The Big Heat, among others. During this time, she also helped launch the debut films of Claire Denis (Chocolat) and Jane Campion (Sweetie). She then enjoyed a prolific career as a film critic, contributing to a variety of publications, including Sight & Sound, Premiere, The Observer and The Guardian.

In 1994, the British Film Institute published her book-length study on women screenwriters, Script Girls, Women Screenwriters in Hollywood. From 1997 to 2001, she worked as the artistic director of the Edinburgh Film Festival. After her tenure, she returned to film production, and set up the Ministry of Fear label for the production company Little Bird. There she co-produced Trauma (Marc Evans, 2004).

Always with a keen eye for the cutting edge and with inextinguishable enthusiasm, Francke continues to be a vital force in aspects of the film industry. She currently works as consultant Executive Producer for feature films for the East Midlands funding agency EM Media, created to help foster the region’s film, television, and interactive media industry.

Jonathan Romney

A film critic for the Independent on Sunday. He also writes for Sight & Sound, Film Comment, Screen International, and Art Review among other important publications. His books include a study of Atom Egoyan; Short Orders, Collected Writing on Film; and Celluloid Jukebox, On Film and Pop Music (edited with Adrian Wootton). He is program advisor on French cinema for the London Film Festival and this year was named Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government.

Fernanda Solórzano

Film critic, editor and essayist. She studied Latin American Literature at the Universidad Iberoamericana. She has worked as the sub-director of the magazine Viceversa, as news editor of the weekly supplement “Día Siete” (El Universal newspaper), as the co-editor of the magazine Letras Libres.

She has contributed weekly film reviews in the supplement “Sábado” (Unomásuno newspaper); and in the supplement “Confabulario” (El Universal newspaper). She has written extensively on the cinema in Dicine, Viceversa Saber ver, Paréntesis, Etcétera, El polemista and La Tempestad, in the supplements “El Ángel” (Reforma newspaper), “La Jornada Semanal” (La Jornada newspaper). She co-authored the book Oltre la Frontiera: il cinema messicano contemporáneo, published during the Pesaro Film Festival in Italy, 2004.

She participated in the BBC radio broadcast “The Ticket” and contributed to the show Screen (also from the BBC). She hosted the show “Filmoteca 40” (Proyecto 40) and the show “Encuadre” (Canal 22) –both centering on film criticism. In 2007 she was invited to form part of the jury for the Short Shorts Film Festival.

Since 2002 she heads the film section at Letras Libres and occasionally contributes to the British film magazine Sight & Sound as well as the Spanish and French editions of Cahiers du Cinema. She is currently in charge of the film segment in the show “Confabulario” (Proyecto 40) and is putting together a book on the most influential films of the last 30 years.

Mexican Documentary Jury

Heidi Ewing

As co-owner of the New York-based production company Loki Films, Heidi has broached a wide range of subjects that include the inner workings of Scientology, ritualistic body piercing in Sri Lanka, and the labyrinth of the criminal justice system in the Bronx. Previously, she delved into the dramatic world of Cuban politics with Dissident, a film about the struggle of Havana-based Nobel Peace Prize nominee Oswaldo Payá; it was made clandestinely and has been shown around the world. She recently co-directed the critically acclaimed The Boys of Baraka.

Leena Pasanen

Finnish, born in 1965. Leena Pasanen studied Finnish Philology and Literature at Oulu University. She began her carrier as a journalist in 1988 working at the Finnish News Agency and in 1993 she joined YLE, the Finnish Broadcasting Company, where she worked as a reporter, political commentator, and TV presenter. From 1999 to 2000 she was the Head of Documentaries for YLE TV1. When the YLE digital cultural channel Teema was launched, Leena Pasanen was cho sen as Head of Programming. Since 2004 she has also been the YLE Deputy Director. In November 2005 she started her work as the director of the European Documentary Network.

Sean Farnel

Director of Programming for Hot Docs, Canadian International Documentary Festival (April 17-27, 2008). Hot Docs is North America’s largest documentary film festival, co-financing forum and market. Sean was appointed to this newly created position in November 2005, following six years as a programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival Group.

In 2000, Sean became the first documentary programmer for TIFFG, while also launching the Festival Group’s hugely successful screening and discussion series, Reel Talk. While at TIFFG, Sean also founded Jump Cuts and the Student Film Showcase, continuing programmes created to provide screening opportunities to youth and emerging filmmakers. Along with curation, Sean managed TIFFG’s Learning programmes, and in 2003 proposed and drafted a Strategic Plan for Public Film Education.

Sean began his association with Hot Docs in 2000, when he founded Doc Soup, a very popular screening series. Now in its sixth season, and presented by Hot Docs, Doc Soup attracts 800 people to monthly screenings of current documentary. Before being appointed Director of Programming at Hot Docs, Sean was responsible for programming and moderating Industry related programming for the Festival.

Sean is a graduate of Cinema Studies at one of Canada’s most respected film schools, Concordia University. Upon graduation, Sean received the Motion Picture Foundation of Canada Award for Most Outstanding Achievement.

Michoacán Section and Screenplay Jury

Armando Casas

(México City, 1964) Studied at the CUEC film school and has taught there since 1993. He also studied theater and communications at the National University of Mexico (UNAM). Casas has worked as a scriptwriter, assistant director, sound technician, actor, and director in several short films. Los retos de la democracia was nominated for an Ariel for Best Short Film by the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences in 1990. His work in television includes Televisa’s Hora marcada and several series for Channel 11, Channel 22, and TV UNAM, as well as commercials and music videos.

He directed the feature film Un mundo raro, which was produced by the Mexican Film Institute (IMCINE), the National Co-Production Fund (FOPROCINE), and the UNAM, as part of a program that supports first works by recent graduates of the CUEC film school. Un mundo raro received an honorary mention at the XVI Mexican Film Showcase in Guadalajara, and it was the closing film at the most recent edition of the Franco- Mexican Film Festival in Acapulco. It has shown in several international film festivals as well as the Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and a retrospective on Mexican cinema, Mex-Artes, in Berlin. Nominated for an Ariel for Best First Work and Best Original Screenplay, it received a Diosa de Plata award for Best First Work, among others honors.

Casas has been granted a scholarship by the National Fund for the Arts and Culture (FONCA) on two occasions, and in 2003 he received the UNAM Award for Young Scholars and Artists, the university’s highest merit award.

His short film Para vestir santos, winner of IMCINE’s Third National Short Film Contest in 2003, was selected to form part of “Tous les Cinémas du Monde” at the 58° Cannes International Film Festival and has been part of more than thirty festivals worldwide. More recently, his documentary TV series on contemporary Mexican cartoons, De oficio monero, aired on Channel 11. He is currently working on a feature film on intolerance, which is influenced by the debates on the liberalization of the abortion law and the new law of domestic partnerships in Mexico City.

Since 2004, he is the director of the National University’s CUEC film school.

Filmography:

Para vestir santos (2004)
Un mundo raro (2001)
Las miradas no mienten (1993)
Cómo escribir una historieta (1992
Mis dos materias favoritas (1992)
Binarius (1991)
Los retos de la democracia (1988)
El gallo de Esculapio (1987)
Solipsismo (1986)
Al volante (1985)
Corre conejo, corre (1985)

Ángeles Castro Gurría

María de los Ángeles Guadalupe Castro Gurría teaches acting at the CCC film school. She studied film direction and acting at the National University’s CUT (Center for Theater). She has acted extensively on stage and television and has directed several plays, including True West by Sam Shepard, which won the Best Newcomer award for directors given by the Mexican Association of Theater Critics.

She taught an acting workshop during the shooting of Like Water for Chocolate, directed by Alfonso Arau, and has been teaching at the CCC since 1984. In May of 1997, she began to work at the CCC’s Office of Academic Services and by August of 2000 she was appointed general director of the film school.

In October of 2003, she staged Margarite Duras’ Ágata, produced by the CUT. As director of the CCC, Castro Gurría has produced the following feature films: De ida y vuelta (Salvador Aguirre); Seres humanos (Jorge Aguilera); Recuerdos (Marcela Arteaga); Pachito Rex (Fabian Hoffman); Noticias lejanas (Ricardo Benet), and 1973 (Antonino Isordia).

Jorge Sánchez Sosa

Born in Córdoba, Veracruz in 1950, Sánchez Sosa studied sociology at the National University (UNAM) and film at the CCC in Mexico City. He founded the UNAM’s Department of Political and Social Sciences first film club. He was co-founder and partner of Zafra-Cine Difusión, Zafra-Video, Cinematográfica Macondo, Producciones Amaranta, and Filmanía.

Six of the seventeen films he’s produced have screened at the Cannes Film Festival, Danzón and El Coronel no tiene quien le escriba were shown as part of the Official Selection. He’s had the privilege to work with the most important Latin American film directors of his time. Sánchez Sosa is founder and director of the Mexican Association for Independent Producers (AMPI), and the Hispanic-American Federation of Film and Media Production (FIPCA).

He’s been a judge at San Sebastian, Sundance, Toronto, and La Habana film festivals, among others. He’s been part of the Advisory Board at IMCINE and Channel 22, and is a member of the New Latin American Cinema Foundation, whose honorary president is Gabriel García Márquez. From June of 2001 to September of 2005, he served as the General Consul for Mexico in Rio de Janeiro. He has been director of the Guadalajara International Film Festival’s since October of 2005.

Mexican Feature Film Jury

Trevor Groth

He grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah and started attending the US Film Festival (which later became the Sundance Film Festival) while in high school. He began working for the Sundance Institute in their development department and at their filmmaker labs while in film school at the University of Utah. Upon his graduation in 1993 he moved to Los Angeles to join the programming staff. Trevor Groth is Senior Programmer for the Sundance Film Festival, where he has worked since 1993. He programs narrative and documentary features and is the head of the short film section of the festival. He is also Director of Programming for CineVegas. In its sixth year under his guidance, CineVegas has emerged as one of the hottest film festivals in the United States.

He helped to conceive and produce the Sundance Online Film Festival, which marked the first time that one of the major international festivals showcased their short films online. He has been a guest curator, panelist and juror for numerous international festivals, as well as a consultant on a number of film productions and for IFILM.com.

Peter Scarlet

Has been with New York City’s Tribeca Film Festival since October 2002, serving as its Executive Director until June 2007 when he was promoted to Artistic Director. He is the event’s chief programmer, and is primarily responsible for its programming of foreign films in all of the festival’s different sections, mainly its narrative and documentary features, and the groundbreaking restored/rediscovered section. He had previously served as Director General of the Cinémathèque Française in Paris, the first American to hold that prestigious position.

Prior to that, Mr. Scarlet served for 19 years (1983- 2001) as Artistic Director of the San Francisco International Film Festival. Under his leadership, this festival, the oldest event of its kind in the Americas (founded in 1957), reclaimed a place among the most adventurous and widely respected international film festivals; at the same time its attendance increased more than three-fold. In addition, Mr. Scarlet is host and programmer of the Cinemondo series of foreign films on LinkTV.

He has served on juries at festivals all over the world, and taught university-level film courses in film history, production and theory for eight years. He was named Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government.

Cecilia Suárez

Mexican actress. She attended the Theater Faculty of Illinois State University (USA) and got an acting degree in 1995. She was part of the following plays: Santos & Santos (1996); Everyman (1995-96); The Crucible (1995); Henry IV, Part II (Illinois Shakespeare Festival, 1995-96); and The Macbeth Project (1994), where she appeared as Lady Macbeth. In México she acted in the short films Nic Habana (1997), by María Fernanda Suárez, Table Dance (1997), by Gerardo Pardo and Lección relámpago (2007) by Alejandro Lubezki. Some of her films are Sexo, pudor y lágrimas (1999); Spanglish (2004); The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005), Un mundo maravilloso (2006), and Blue Eyelids (2007).