Morelia International Film Festival

Mike Hodges

Best known for his debut Get Carter (1971) and for the surprise hit Croupier (1998), made nearly three decades later, Mike Hodges has never really enjoyed the acclaim he deserves. One of the most distinctive filmmakers to have emerged from Britain in the modern era, he has seen a number of his films fall foul of studio interference or lacklustre distribution; but the longevity of his career and the excellence of his most recent films demonstrate both his unwillingness to compromise and his determination to continue working, however greatly his own ambitions as an artist may differ from those of a profit­mo­ tivated industry.

Before moving into fiction features with Get Carter, Hodges worked in television, producing and directing programmes on current affairs and politics for the World in Action series and on the arts for the Tempo strand; filmmakers covered for the latter included Orson Welles, Jean­Luc Godard and Jacques Tati. But he was also a great fan of crime thrillers, and in 1969 he wrote, produced and directed a one­off film for television entitled Suspect. After Rumour (1970), a second, rather more experimental drama (centred, like Croupier, on a writer), Hodges hit paydirt with his first theatrical feature, Michael Caine's Jack Carter becoming one of the most genuinely iconic charac­ ters ever to have appeared in a British film.

Profoundly alert to the fact that simplicity of expression need not preclude complexity and sophistication of nuanced meaning -Hodges has often spoken of his admiration for filmmakers like Jean Vigo, Abbas Kiarostami and the Taviani brothers- Hodges is still seeking out ever more eloquent ways of communicating, clearly and directly, his very distinctive vision of the human condition.

Cristian Mungiu

Writer and director Cristian Mungiu was born in 1968 in Iasi, Romania. He studied English Literature at the University of Iasi and Film Directing at the University of Film in Bucharest. He worked as a teacher and a journalist for written press, radio and television until 1994. During his film studies, he worked as an assistant director in a number of films for renowned directors like Bertrand Tavernier and Radu Mihai­ leanu. Since then, he's directed and produced various short films, documentaries and several foreign productions shot in Romania. His first feature, Occident, was premiered in the Director's Fortnight in Cannes in 2002 and was later screened in over 50 festivals worldwide. He co­founded Mobra Films in 2003. His most recent film, 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days won the Palme d'Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.

Julia Ormond

British actress. After a brief stint at the prestigious fine art school West Surrey College of Art and Design, Julia Ormond attended acting school at the Webber­Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts, in London. Her exceptional talent for the stage immediately attracted the attention of the film and television industry. Her breakthrough role came in 1991, when she played the lead character in the made­for­tv biopic of Catherine the Great, Young Catherine. Through the early '90s, Ormond held a string of interesting roles, most notably in Peter Greenaway's The Baby of Mâcon (1992). But her greatest break­ through came in 1994, with Legends of the Fall (dir. Ed­ ward Zwick) starring alongside Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins and Aidan Quinn. She delivered an extraordinary performance, which earned her international recognition. She followed the success of Legends of the Fall with Sabrina (dir. Sydney Pollack) and First Knight (Jerry Zucker). Aware of the limi­ tations of Hollywood cinema, Ormond then turned to European cinema. She played the lead role in Bille August's Smila's Sense of Snow (1997), and the following year, starred in the Russian production The Barber of Siberia (dir. Nikita Mikhalkov), as a young American girl who falls in love with an officer of the Czarist army. At the same time, and with the intention to engage in more personal projects, Ormond found­ ed her own production company, Indican. In 1999, she lent her voice to a tv production of George Orwell's Animal Farm, and the following year she returned to the Hollywood film scene with The Prime Gig, featuring Vince Vaughn. In 2001, she served as a member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival. The most recent additions to Ormond's impressive resume are Resistance (2003) the hbo film Iron Jawed Angels (2004), Inland Empire (2006) from acclaimed di­ rector David Lynch, The Curious Case of Benjamin But­ ton (2008), and Steven Soderbergh's Guerrilla (2008), a film based on the life of Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Besides her acting work, Ormond has contributed generously to humanitarian causes. She is a founding chair of FilmAid International, a celebrated nonprofit organization that uses the power of film to address the needs of displaced people around the world. In 2003, she won the prestigious Crystal Award for using her art to transcend cultural boundaries.

Jorge Volpi

Jorge Volpi holds a ba degree in Law, and a Master's degree in Mexican Literature from the National Autonomous Universi­ ty of Mexico (unam), as well as a Ph.D. in Spanish Philology from the University of Salamanca. He published his first novel in 1993. In 1999, he was awarded the "Biblioteca Breve" award for his novel In Search of Klingsor (which has been translated into twenty­one languages), the first in his "Trilo­ gy of the Twentieth Century," which also includes The End of Madness (2003) and No será la tierra (Alfaguara, 2006). He is currently General Director of Channel 22 (Canal 22).