Past Editions

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.