Mexico's Morelia is the Civilized Film Festival

If you spend much time going to film festivals, you know that the big ones like Cannes and Toronto are a bit like those package tours of Europe: You see great things every single day, but you spend too much of your time hustling and standing in line. You rarely have time to breathe. That’s why, over the past few years, I kept meeting filmmakers, actors, and festival programmers who told me that I simply had to go to Morelia. Set in one of Mexico’s loveliest old cities, the Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia (FICM), which ended yesterday, has earned a reputation as perhaps the world’s most hospitable festival. That’s why it’s become a magnet for cool Hollywood guys like Quentin Tarantino, art film icons like Werner Herzog, well-known actors like Diego Luna, and Mexican superstar directors like Alfonso Cuarón, long a favorite visitor here, whose Gravity wowed the crowd on opening night.