'At the Edge of the Volcano' by Jorge Granados Ross '21 Heads To Cannes By Special Invitation

The short film At the Edge of the Volcano, directed by Jorge Granados Ross '21, co-written by Granados Ross and fellow alum Melik Kuru '21, and produced by Mariana Saffon '19, is set to screen at the Semaine de la Critique (Critic's Week) of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, in the International Film Festival of Morelia program. 

At the Edge of the Volcano tells the story of two middle-aged couples who travel together to a remote island. As bad news arrives from inland, the world around them begins to collapse and their relationships will soon follow suit. The film was created as a Granados Ross's thesis project for the MFA Film program and will also screen at this year's Miloš Forman/Mike Hausman Columbia Film Festival. 

Semaine de la Critique is an event organized by the French Union of Film Critics. Their mission, according to their website is, “to highlight first and second features directed by filmmakers from all around the world, to enable French critics to fight for and explore young film creation the best they can, support today’s revelations in order to have them become tomorrow’s talents,” and, “pay great attention to short and medium length films, first steps in the career of a director.” Thirteen short films and eleven feature films are selected for screening. 

The International Film Festival of Morelia was established in 2002. It is recognized as one of the most important film events of the Latin-American subcontinent. The festival, according to their website, is "structured around three competitive selections,” short films, documentaries, and first or second feature films. Each slate of screenings exclusively screens the work of Mexican artists. After screening in the International Film Festival of Morelia, where it received a Special Mention Award, At the Edge of the Volcano was invited alongside three other standout films from the festival to screen in the Semaine de la Critique. 

Ross is a Mexican filmmaker. He holds an MFA in Film Directing and Screenwriting from Columbia University (2021), where he was awarded the International Student Fellowship by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the Milena Jelinek Memorial Screenwriting Award. His short film Some Ruins was selected for the official competition at the 2019 Morelia International Film Festival. As a producer, his work includes Entre tú y Milagros, directed by Mariana Saffon, which received the Orizzonti Award for Best Short Film at the 77th Venice International Film Festival, and the animated short Louis I: King of the Sheep by Markus Wulf, presented at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2022. His most recent short film, At the Edge of the Volcano, has screened at POFF Shorts, Bogoshorts, Brest, Dijon, and the Morelia International Film Festival. He is currently developing his first feature film.

Kuru, born in 1989, left architecture studies before graduating at the top of his class from Koc University’s Media and Visual Arts program and later completing an MFA in Film at Columbia University. His earlier short film, We Are a Family, premiered at the Antalya Film Festival and received Jury Selects and Audience awards at the Columbia University Film Festival. His projects have appeared in international industry platforms such as CineLink, Connecting Cottbus, and Meetings on the Bridge. Beyond directing, he edited Hesitation Wound, which premiered in the Orizzonti section of the Venice Film Festival. His first feature-length film, DUMP OF UNTITLED PIECES, has played at multiple international film festivals such as Slamdance and POFF.

Saffon is a Colombian Writer/Director. Her latest short film, Entre tú y Milagros, won the Orizzonti Short Film award at the 77th Venice International Film Festival in 2020, the Best Short Film Award at the Hamptons Film Festival, and the DGA Jury Award for Best Latino Director for the East Coast, among many others. The short film is now featured in The New Yorker Magazine. She is a Columbia University MFA Graduate, recipient of the Milos Forman Directing Fellowship, and is currently writing her first feature, Mar de Leva, which will soon be shot in Bogotá, Colombia.