Past Editions

Michoacán Short Film and Screenplay Jury

Ana Cruz

Born in Mexico City, Ana Cruz is a Communication Sciences graduate from the Universidad Iberoamericana. She also studied film at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and specialized in television and documentary at the BBC in London. She has produced scientific documentaries for CONACYT (National Science and Technology Council) and was a scriptwriter for theatre series and television dramas for state-owned IMEVISION. After that, she became an independent scriptwriter, producer and cultural television director.

Her work in Mexican media, which stretches over more than 25 years, has earned her numerous awards such as the Latin-American Historic Radio Series Prize (1989) and the Silver Microphone (2001) for the tourism and cultural promotion series Mosaico Mexicano. She also received the Goethe award for her promotion of German culture in Mexico.

Since 2004 she is President of the Women in Film and Television Association (Mexico), and in 2005 she presided the jury of the Femme Totale International Film Festival celebrated in Dortmund, Germany. She is currently Promotion and Programming Director at the Cineteca Nacional (National Cinematheque) and works as an independent scriptwriter. She is also a contributor to several national and foreign cultural magazines.

Marina Stavenhagen

Marina Stavenhagen was born in Mexico City, where she studied Communication Sciences at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana and screenwriting at the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica (CCC). A promoter of audio-visual culture, she has been Promotion Director of the IMCINE (Mexican Film Institute) and Director of the first three editions of the International Film Festival of Film Schools, as well as General Coordinator of the International Video and Electronic Arts Festival (Vidarte) in 1999 and of the first six editions of the Acapulco French-Mexican Film Festival.

A juror at numerous film, short film, and video contests and festivals, she is a member of the Board of Directors of the Mexico City Children’s Film Festival and Vice-President of Women in Film and Television (Mexico). The French government awarded Stavenhagen, in 2004, the Order of Arts and Letters.

She has participated in the Sundance Institute’s Screenwriters’ Laboratory in Mexico, sponsored by the Toscano Foundation. Her vast filmography includes En medio de la nada (Hugo Rodríguez, 1993) and De la calle (Gerardo Tort, 2001). She presently coordinates the Evaluation and Project Development Workshop of Televisa Film and is writing screenplays for several film projects.

José María Escriche

Born 53 years ago in Huesca, Spain, José María Escriche has worked tirelessly in the field of film promotion. After his university studies, he was elected President, in 1973, of the Pena Zoti Cultural Association, in which he founded the International Short Film Competition, a pioneering contest in character and orientation. Five years later he became president of the International Short Film Competition of the city of Huesca. The enthusiastic response from audiences and filmmakers led him to create the Huesca Film Festival Foundation. Between 1983 and 1986 he was Town Councillor of Huesca, successively holding the offices of Deputy, Mayor, and President of the Education, Culture, Sports and Celebrations Commission. At the same time, he was advisor to several associations, trusts and cultural organizations, both Spanish and foreign. He has also worked on commissions dedicated to evaluating film projects in Spain.

Escriche has been a juror in a variety of film competitions and is a founding member of the European Coordination of Film Festivals sponsored by the European Union— which encompasses more than 200 European festivals. Presently, he is Technical Cultural Advisor for the Huesca Town Council and Director of the Huesca International Film Festival.