The Morelia International Film Festival announced the final details for its 12th edition, which kicks off next Friday (October 17). It is overall a really impressive lineup and - as usual - Morelia will be premiering in Mexico some of the hottest films of the year.
To begin with the latest announcements, we have confirmation that - as everyone predicted - the festival's opening film is Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman. The Mexican director himself will present the Michael Keaton starring picture in Morelia.
The festival also confirmed the following Mexican premieres of international films: Black Coal, Thin Ice, Two Days, One Night, Diplomacy, Force Majeure, Goodbye to Language, Leviathan, Maps to the Stars, Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet, Timbuktu, Whiplash, and - on a very special 4DX screening - Eli Roth's The Green Inferno. This short list includes the latest work of such celebrated auteurs as Volker Schlöndorff, Jean-Luc Godard, and David Cronenberg, as well as some of the year's most acclaimed films, like Damien Chazelle's Whiplash and Andrey Zvyagintsev's Leviathan.
As previously reported, Morelia is showing as well this year's Palme d'Or winning film Winter Sleep and several others from Cannes' Critics' Week.
As far as Mexican movies go, Morelia will host the premieres of Christian Keller's Gloria Trevi biopic Gloria, Manolo Caro's Elvira, Te Daría Mi Vida Pero la Estoy Usando, Artemio Narro's Me Quedo Contigo (starring Diego Luna), and Luis Javier M. Henaine's Tiempos Felices. This adds to the already announced Mexican official selection.
Many filmmakers land in Morelia every year to present their work and in 2014 the festival is having as special guests: El Ardor's Pablo Fendrik, White God's Kornél Mundruczó, Wild Tales' Damián Szifrón, We Come as Friends' Hubert Sauper, Lucifer's Gust Van den Berghe, The Salt of the Earth's Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, and The Wonders' Alice Rohrwacher. The guests of honor are Clouds of Sils Maria's Juliette Binoche, Tsili's Amos Gital, Ida's Pawel Pawlikowski, and Pierre Rissient.
For additional information and schedule, please visit Morelia's official site.