Diego Luna, Rodrigo Plá, and Nicolás Pereda Headline Morelia Film Festival's 24th Edition Competition
Diego Luna's fifth film as director, "Ashes," leads a dozen fiction features competing for the top prize at the 24th Morelia International Film Festival (FICM), set for October 16–25. The film, which world-premiered at Cannes and was picked up by Netflix for Latin America, Spain, and Portugal, is co-produced by Animal de Luz, the company run by Inna Payan (Variety).
Luna is hardly the only familiar name in the lineup. Nicolás Perada's "Everything Else is Noise" ("Lo demás es ruido") also competes, fresh off acquisitions by U.S.-based distributor Pragda ahead of its screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. Rodrigo Plá's "The Newcomers" ("Los Nuevos"), a Patra Spanou pickup after its world premiere at Locarno's Kids Screenings, joins them. So does Fernanda Tovar's feature debut "Sad Girlz," picked up by Alpha Violet before its Berlinale debut (Variety).
The competition grew this year. Rafael Aviña, a member of the FICM selection committee, said the festival received 68 fiction features and expanded its planned fiction selection from eight to twelve titles (Variety). Across all sections, a total of 96 feature-length and short films — from filmmakers spanning 17 Mexican states — competed for the El Ojo award, a sculpture created by Michoacán artist Javier Marín (Variety).
Women directed 40% of the films in the Official Selection. On the documentary side, senior programmer Chloë Roddick said the field narrowed to 12 feature titles and 11 shorts (Variety).
FICM runs four official competition sections, all of them devoted exclusively to Mexican films — including a Michoacán Section spotlighting work from the host state (moreliafilmfest.com). The festival also extends its reach beyond the screenings themselves. Through its "FICM Presenta" initiative, short films in competition from the previous edition travel to schools, universities, film clubs, festivals, and community spaces across Mexico, giving them a life after the festival closes (moreliafilmfest.com).
What makes the Morelia lineup worth watching is the sheer range of paths these films took to get there. One arrived via Cannes and a Netflix deal. Another came through Locarno's children's programme. A third was scooped up in Berlin before anyone in Mexico could see it. Twelve fiction features, gathered from that spread of global premieres, now compete on the same stage — for a sculpture by a Michoacán artist, in a city that has spent 24 editions insisting Mexican cinema deserves its own spotlight.
