Spanish talent is out in force at this year’s Annecy. Here Screen profiles five directors and producers attending the festival.
Irene Iborra
Director, Olivia And The Invisible Earthquake
Iborra returns to Annecy after her debut short, Cytoplasm In Acid Medium, played the festival in 2005; other short films include Click and What’s Up With The Sky? She is currently working on her feature debt Olivia And The Invisible Earthquake, which is being presented as a work-in-progress at the festival. Based on the book The Film Of Our Life by Maite Carranza, the puppet and stop-motion feature follows a 12-year-old girl as she attempts to protect her younger brother from the realities of their eviction from their home. It is produced by Spain’s Cornelius Films in association with Citoplasmas — the company that Iborra co-founded with Eduard Puertas and Adrian Iborra — and Bigaro Films, and Belgium’s Panique and Vivement Lundi. Iborra, who has masters degrees in Scriptwriting For Cinema and TV and Direction and Stop Motion Animation, began as a screenwriter on TV show Mironins. “For me, the most important aspect [of any project] is the story,” she says. “It’s the core of the project, the foundation… from there, we add layers to build the film.”
Chelo Loureiro
Producer, Sultana’s Dreams
A versatile Galician filmmaker and founder of Abano Producións, Loureiro has produced both live-action and animated films. In the latter category, her work includes Isabel Herguera’s Sultana’s Dreams, which competes this year in Annecy’s Contrecamp after playing in San Sebastián competition; Alberto Vázquez’s Annecy-nominated gem Unicorn Wars; Miguelanxo Prado’s De Profundis; and Camila Kater’s internationally multi-awarded Flesh. In 2021, Loureiro directed her first feature, Valentina, an animated musical which won the Goya award for best animated feature (as Unicorn Wars did in 2023). “No matter what genre I am producing, I need plots that are appealing to international audiences, showing a social background and questioning reality — whether addressed to a child or adult audience,” says Loureiro who is also co-producing Estefania Piñeres’ debut Mu-Ki-Ra alongside Colombia’s Letrario, which was presented in the Annecy Animation Showcase at this year’s Cannes Animation Day.
Izibene Oñederra
Director, When It Comes
Basque filmmaker Oñederra plays in official Annecy selection for the fifth time with When It Comes (It Will Be Your Eyes), a Sultana Films-produced short tackling, as she describes, “a climate crisis that slowly but inexorably takes hold of a society.” Employing a 2D drawing technique, the director says that “finding the animation technique with a somewhat grotesque, caricature-like, and expressive aesthetic is finding the voice, as it encapsulates the emotion and precise tone of the film.” Onederra’s previous works include Hezurbeltzak, una fosa común (2007), Hotzanak, For Your Own Safety (2013) and Lursaguak.
Alba Sotorra
Producer, Rock Bottom
Sotorra has already made her mark as a live-action producer, being nominated in Berlin’s Generation 14plus with Carla Subirana’s Sica and taking a flurry of international prizes with Alejandro Rojas and Juan Sebastián Vasquez‘s Upon Entry, which Charades-sold. She also took several international awards with The Return: Life After ISIS, directed by herself. Sotorra ventures now into animation with María Trenor’s competition entry Rock Bottom, and is also developing her second animated project, a collaboration with children’s author Miriam Tirado. “With the awareness that I use public funds in part to make movies, I consider it very important important that the cinema I produce or direct serves as a conscience and a mirror of the social and human diversity that exists, originating from non-hegemonic perspectives,” she says.
María Trénor
Director, Rock Bottom
Valencia-born Trénor, who won the Berlin Teddy Bear Award for her 2004 short Con qué la lavaré?, which also participated in Sundance and Annecy, likes to sing while drawing, and has long-harboured a desire to make an animated feature inspired by Robert Wyatt’s album ‘Rock Bottom.’ One of the easiest steps in the process, she says, was to get the approval of the legendary English musician; now, a decade after he gave his blessing, the finished film competes in Annecy’s main section. “For me music and sound are the most powerful tools for creating emotions,” says Trénor, who also made shorts Where Were You? And Exlibris. “I would have liked to have been a singer, but I also enjoy the visual arts and writing stories. Therefore animation is the perfect medium for me, embracing all these disciplines.”
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