Península Films Boards Sofía Carrillo's Stop-Motion Debut 'Insectario'
Mexican production company Península Films & Entertainment has come aboard 'Insectario', the first feature film from stop-motion animator Sofía Carrillo, Variety reported on 21 October 2026.
The deal was signed in Mexico at the 24th Morelia International Film Festival. Eduardo Díaz Casanova of Península and Nicolás Celis of Pimienta Films finalised the co-production agreement there. Celis produced 'Roma', the Alfonso Cuarón film that won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. Pimienta Films is listed as a production company on the project, along with Inicia Films of Spain.
Stop-motion is animation made by photographing objects, often puppets or models, one frame at a time. Carrillo is no stranger to the craft. Her short films 'The Wandering Witch', 'The Sad House', 'Black Doll' and 'Out of Control' have screened at Annecy, Sundance and Sitges. Guillermo del Toro has praised her stop-motion work, and she worked on the puppet costumes for his film 'Pinocchio'.
The story is set in a world with no insects. It follows Lexi, a specimen archivist who brings a rare moth back to life, a species that was thought to be extinct. Monika Revilla wrote the script. The film is still in pre-production, which means the cast, shoot dates and budget have not been announced.
Península was founded in 2018 by brothers Eduardo and Gabriel Díaz Casanova. The company is also involved in 'De Noche', the Killer Films project directed by Todd Haynes and starring Pedro Pascal. That link is the reason the Variety report gives for Península's wider role in Mexican feature production.
The project has a wide group of co-producers. They include Cuadernos de Cine in Mexico, Inicia Films in Spain (represented by Valérie Delpierre), Productions Ocho in Canada, Trickster Pictures in Latvia and BreakThru Films in Poland. Trickster Pictures is the company of Matīss Kaža, who produced 'Flow', the Latvian film that won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2025. BreakThru Films is run by Hugh Welchman, who won the 2007 Oscar for Best Animated Short Film for 'Peter & the Wolf'.
The Morelia festival catalogue says the film is funded by Ibermedia Next, the programme that backs Ibero-American co-productions. It also says Carrillo won the 2024 Annecy Residency with 'Insectario'. The Marché du Film, the market held alongside the Cannes Film Festival, lists the project with a runtime of 75 minutes, in Spanish, and with comedy and drama as its genres.
For a first-time director, the most important step is often the producer lineup. A team of companies across several countries can share costs, open doors to different funds and sell the film to more territories. What comes next is the shoot and the search for a sales agent and buyers. Those decisions will shape when, and where, audiences first see 'Insectario'.
