Tatiana Huezo and Elisa Miller Lead Impulso Morelia 12 Selections
Six works-in-progress have been chosen from roughly 90 submissions for the 12th edition of Impulso Morelia, the Morelia Film Festival's industry forum that helps near-finished films reach completion. Three of the six are directed by women, with Tatiana Huezo and Elisa Miller leading the lineup. Andrea Stavenhagen heads the forum Variety.
The selected films will be presented over October 18–20 and assessed by an industry panel led by Ted Hope, co-founder of The Good Machine, the production company behind acclaimed independent films. The festival confirmed the selection and panel on its official website on August 25 Morelia Film Festival.
Tatiana Huezo's entry is "Galerna," her second fiction feature, produced by Pimienta Films and Elastica Films with producers Nicolás Celis, Tatiana Huezo and María Zamora. The film follows Lúa and Noé, who are tasked with casting first-time actors for a science-fiction film, travelling through remote regions of Mexico. Huezo's first fiction film was "Prayers for the Stolen" ("Noche de fuego"); she also directed the documentary "Tempestad" (2016) and received an Ojo Award at the 21st Morelia Film Festival in 2023 Morelia Film Festival.
Elisa Miller, meanwhile, won the Award for Best Screenplay for a Mexican Fiction Feature Film at the same 21st edition, sharing the honour with Daniela Gómez for "Hurricane Season" ("Temporada de huracanes") Morelia Film Festival. Both filmmakers have collaborated with Impulso Morelia in prior editions.
The slate also includes "Homeboys," a debut feature documentary by Alonso Garibay and Alejandro Bernal about Roberto Hernández, known as "Mr. Lucky," who was deported to a country he barely knew Variety.
The prizes on offer are substantial. The José María Riba Impulso Morelia 12 Award, presented by Cinépolis Distribution and Profest 2026, carries a cash prize of $14,740 (250,000 pesos), of which 150,000 pesos comes from Cinépolis Distribution. The winner also receives a promotional campaign valued at $1,500 from LatAm Cinema, a digital media platform covering Latin American film. Separately, Estudios Churubusco Azteca will award image and sound post-production services valued at $41,280 (700,000 pesos), either to a single project or split between two Variety.
For filmmakers working outside the major studio systems of Mexico City, these awards can be the difference between a film that finishes and one that stalls. Post-production costs — the final stages of editing, sound mixing and image polishing — are often where independent productions run out of money. The combination of cash and in-kind services from Impulso Morelia is designed to close that gap.
The 2026 Morelia Film Festival programme comprises 96 films. Its FICM Presenta initiative extends the life of festival films beyond the event itself by bringing them to schools, universities, film clubs, festivals and community spaces across Mexico Morelia Film Festival.
