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SOY FRANKELDA: A Completely Mexican Production

Omar Sosa

As part of the 23rd Morelia International Film Festival (FICM), filmmakers Arturo and Roy Ambriz, founders of Cinema Fantasma, presented the premiere of Soy Frankelda (2025), their latest production.

Pablo Baksht, producer and coordinator of FICM Presents, and Carlos Castillo, distributor of the film, joined the filmmakers at the screening. “Today we are going to see the first Mexican film made entirely with stop motion animation in history,” said Pablo Baksht, praising the filmmakers for their craftsmanship, imagination, and faith in “cinema made by hand, frame by frame, with natural intelligence.” 

Soy Frankelda tells the story of a 19th-century Mexican writer who delves into her subconscious to confront the monsters she writes about. Guided by a tormented prince, she must restore the balance between fiction and reality before it is too late. A notable detail is that the production was advised by acclaimed director Guillermo del Toro.

Greeted with loud applause, Arturo and Roy Ambriz took the stage to thank the audience for attending and the festival for selecting their film. “You will be the first to see this first cut. We hope you like it and that you can feel the work of so many Mexicans who made this film,” they said, acknowledging the immense and laborious effort that went into filming. 

Before the screening, Carlos Castillo expressed his pride in being part of this project. He announced that the film will be released with more than 500 copies nationwide. “We are hoping that the Mexican audiences will support a 100 percent Mexican project,” he added.

After the screening, the directors, along with Mireya Mendoza, voice actress and star of the film, took part in a Q&A session with the audience. “We have the best of the best of Mexican talent here today,” he added, speaking of the entire production team and cast in attendance.

“It's wonderful to have the honor of being at this marvelous festival,” said Roy Ambriz. “As a film student, your dream is to have your debut film in Guadalajara or Morelia, and we were in both,” he added, referring to how privileged Soy Frankelda has been in the different national screening venues.

When asked about the challenges they faced in making the film, the young director talked about how meticulous and complex stop motion is: “Nothing is easy, nothing is simple.” 

“I believe that inspiration comes from fear,” Mireya Mendoza added to the answer. From her point of view, the most complicated, but also the most important thing, was facing something unknown that even all her experience could not have prepared her for. “If a challenge scares you, use it as inspiration, use it as a means to continue creating,” she added.

“The most beautiful thing is when you transform something negative in your life into something positive,” Roy Ambriz said in response to another question from the audience. He confessed how frustrating it was for him and his brother to get to where they are today and urged the audience not to give up on their dreams, no matter how complicated they may be.

“We decided to give all those burdens to a fictional writer named Francisca Imelda, pseudonym Frankelda, and by channeling all those negative feelings into a character, they automatically transformed into something positive,” the director said about the motivation behind the film. 

The Q&A session ended with a question from a child who wanted to know how the characters in Soy Frankelda were created. “We make all our puppets by hand, here in Mexico. You could also do stop motion with plasticine,” he replied, explaining how stop motion animation works briefly.

“We don't like sitting behind a computer; we love sculpting, painting, getting our hands dirty with oil paint and clay, and that's why we use this animation technique,” he added before saying goodbye to an audience that responded with a long round of applause.