Festival
Welcome!
The Morelia International Film Festival (FICM) is now in its eigth year and has become a meeting point in Mexico for the cinematographic community, the general public, and new national and international filmmakers. FICM started in 2003 with the goal of promoting up-and-coming Mexican cinema talents with Morelia as the main stage.
The Festival has four official sections in competition: Mexican Short Film, Mexican Documentary, Mexican Feature Film and Michoacán Section (including short and feature-length films, as well as fiction and documentaries from the State of Michoacán). The Festival also has a Michoacán Short Film Scriptwriting Contest, in which scripts of up to a maximum of 10 pages by writers born or residing in Michoacán can compete.
In addition to the screenings of each of the films in the different sections, every year FICM celebrates the career of a recognized filmmaker who attends the festival to share his experience with young filmmakers and the public.
Among the distinguished directors who have attended FICM are: Werner Herzog, Barbet Schroeder, Fernando Vallejo, Gus Van Sant, Manoel de Oliveira, Raul Ruiz, Mike Hodges, Jean Claude Carriere, Stephen Frears, Arthur Penn, Bertrand Tavernier, Hector Babenco, Cristian Mungiu, Todd Haynes, Nicolas Philibert and Michael Nyman.
Every year FICM honors an important figure of Mexican cinema from the state of Michoacán. In previous years, the festival has paid homage to filmmakers Miguel Contreras and Fernando Méndez, actresses Stella Inda and Lilia Prado, cinematographer Ezequiel Carrasco and actor Julio Alemán, who was born in Morelia.
FICM has established a solid partnership with the International Critics´ Week of the Cannes Film Festival, which has supported Mexican filmmakers such as Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, Guillermo del Toro and Fernando Eimbcke. A selection of films from the Critics´ Week is presented each year at FICM with the presence of some of their participants. Likewise, the Critics´ Week shows the winning films of FICM at their prestigious European film festival. Among the documentaries that have been presented are Eugenio Polgovsky´s Trópico de Cáncer, Mi vida adentro by LucÃa Gajá and Gustavo Gamou´s La palomilla salvaje. The short film Peces plátano, by Natalia Beristáin, El pasajero by MatÃas Meyer and Carlos Carrera´s De raÃz have also been shown in Cannes.
In 2008 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences officially recognized FICM by offering fiction and animation short films that win at FICM the opportunity to be considered for an Oscar® nomination.
Outdoor screenings, workshops, conferences, round tables and exhibitions in Pátzcuaro, Mexico City and other venues complete FICM’s year-round activities.
Galleries
