Indie Drama 'Workers' Wins Top Prize at Morelia Fest
Alfonso Cuaron, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez attended the event.
MEXICO CITY – Jose Luis Valle's Workers, a drama about Mexico's class divide, won best picture Saturday at the 11th Morelia International Film Festival.
The Mexico-Germany co-production, which had its world premiere in the Berlinale Panorama section earlier this year, is up-and-comer Valle's feature debut.
Morelia's audience award went to the Cannes Un Certain Regard Talent Prize winner, La Jaula de Oro (The Golden Cage), a story about the hardships of U.S.-bound Guatemalan migrants. The movie also got best first work for writer-director Diego Quemada-Diez. El Cuarto Desnudo (The Naked Room), a disturbing, up-close portrait of neglected children, walked away with best documentary.
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Guests in Morelia this year included Alfonso Cuaron, Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Danny Trejo, Edward James Olmos, John Sayles and Alejandro Jodorowsky.
During the 10-day event in Morelia, Ambulante, the traveling documentary film festival founded by actors Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, announced tours dates (Sept. 21-Oct. 4) for the Los Angeles metropolitan area. It marks the first time that the non-profit mobile fest will cross into the U.S. with its socially-minded, Mexico-focused program.
Morelia opened with Cuaron's space thriller Gravity and closed Saturday with Ridley Scott's The Counselor.
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