EXCLUSIVE: Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s Thai Oscar submission A Useful Ghost is among a full complement of this year’s Cannes Critics’ Week comp
EXCLUSIVE: Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s Thai Oscar submission A Useful Ghost is among a full complement of this year’s Cannes Critics’ Week competition selections that will screen at the 23rd Morelia International Film Festival in Mexico (FICM, October 10-19).
The sidebar grand prize winner about a dead woman who returns as a vacuum cleaner stars Davika Hoorne from local box-office hit Pee Mak and is sold by Best Friend Forever.
A Useful Ghost is part of a seven-strong roster from the 64th Critics’ Week and marks the latest Cannes delegation under a partnership that has existed since FICM launched in 2003. Four Mexican shorts screened out of competition on the Croisette as part of the exchange programme.
The Critics’ Week selections that premiered in Cannes this year include Alexe Poukine’s Belgian comedy drama Kika, about a grieving pregnant woman who turns to sex work, which has been a warm seller for Totem Films; Déni Oumar Pitsaev’s documentary Imago, the jury prize winner about a man from the Caucusus region who ruffles feathers when he returns to his village; and Pauline Loques’s Rising Star Award recipient Nino, a French drama about a man ordered by his doctors to explore Paris.
Rounding out the selection are Shih-Ching Tsou’s Taipie-set family drama Left-Handed Girl produced by Sean Baker, which Netflix acquired for most of the world and Le Pacte sells; Guillermo Galoe’s Spanish coming-of-age drama Sleepless City set in Europe’s largest shanty town, La Cañada Real; and Sven Bresser’s Dutch crime drama Reedland.
“This is a festival with which we have very strong and fraternal bonds, and which is also committed to discovering new talent,” Critics’ Week artistic director Ava Cahen, who will attend Morelia, told Screen as the announcement was made on Thursday.
The decades-long partnership between the festivals has given Mexican audiences the chance to savour acclaimed first and second features from the Croisette sidebar, and has afforded more than 60 Mexican filmmakers the opportunity to present their films in Cannes.
Morelia will host in-person screenings in Morelia and Michoacán, as well as virtual screenings.
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