Alberto Mielgo: Last News

Jamie Lang Spanish animation is experiencing a historic boom. Shorts and features from the country are achieving notable success at festivals and the box office, while Spanish artists are contributing to some of the most influential film and TV productions coming from Hollywood today. The question now is what steps should be taken to build on recent success.

Emiliano De Pablos In a highly anticipated animation event at this year’s Cannes Festival, Emmy-winning Spanish director Rodrigo Blaas attends on Sunday the screening of his short film “Sith,” part of Disney+’s “Star Wars: Visions” Season 2 anthology. The first big-screen exhibition of “Sith” — released worldwide May 4 on Disney+ — followed by a meet and greet with Blaas marks one highlight of the Animation Day Revelations New Animated Shorts From Spain, organized by ICEX Spain’s Trade & Investment. The Spanish animation event at Cannes will also showcase Alberto Mielgo’s celebrated 2022 Oscar-winning short film “The Windshield Wiper.”

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Spain’s Revelations showcase has focused on shorts, not features, unveiling the huge breadth of animation talent and techniques in Spain. Some shorts directors are already stars, such as Alberto Mielgo with the Oscar-winner “The Windshield Wiper.” Diego Porral, director of “Leopoldo From the Bar,” served as animation lead on “Love, Death + Robots” episode “Kill Team Kill.” Standouts among new projects in Revelations included “Latente,” a Next Lab Generation winner from Carlos Zaragoza and Aurora Jiménez, and Martín Romero’s “To Bird or Not to Bird,” from Uniko and Abano Producións, which is a 2D short made largely in black and white featuring an angst-ridden clock cuckoo and other birds beset by environmental destruction.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Spain’s status as Cannes’ Marché du Film’s Country of Honor is a “milestone,” says María Peña, CEO of ICEX Spain Trade & Investment. But it’s also a mark of recognition, she says, after Spain’s big wins just this year at the Berlinale (three prizes for Estibaliz Urresola’s “20,000 Species of Bees”) and France’s Cesars (foreign film win for “The Beasts” and actor trophy to Benoît Magimel for Albert Serra’s “Pacification” and cinematography for its DP, Artur Tort). Peña also points to April’s MipTV, where Rafael Cobos’ “The Left Handed Son,” from Movistar Plus+, won Canneseries’ Short Format Competition, and “The Caravan,” produced by Barcelona’s Caravan Films, the first MipDoc International Buyers Screenings honors.

Marta Balaga Spanish animation shows off its serious side in Cannes’ “Revelations!” showcase, dedicated to new shorts both by promising beginners and acclaimed filmmakers, such as Alberto Mielgo, who scored an Academy Award for “The Windshield Wiper.” In June, four of the presented titles will also head to Annecy: María Lorenzo’s “Fashion Victims 2.0,” “Lost at Sea,” directed by Lucija Stojevic and Andrés Bartos, Pablo Río’s “Conej Steps Out” and Carla Pereira and Juanfran Jacinto’s “All Is Lost.” “Animators, or just artists in general, tend to reflect on their times. Some of these films were born during the pandemic and yes, there is this melancholy to them. They are tackling multiple serious subjects,” says animation curator Carolina López Caballero.

Emiliano De Pablos Spain’s animation services and VFX industry is booming as never before, positioning itself as a leading hub in the global landscape. With tax rebates firing up Spain’s audiovisual industry, the animation sector has produced 16 feature films, 72 seasons of TV series and 156 short films from 2020-2022, according to toon and VFX federation Diboos. The 2019 Sergio Pablos-directed Netflix feature “Klaus” snagged seven Annie awards, while Alberto Mielgo’s “The Windshield Wiper” won the 2022 Oscar for animated short film. Spanish animated features have also connected with international audiences: This year, Juan Jesús García Galocha’s “Mummies,” from 4Cats and Atresmedia Cine, grossed $52 million worldwide, handled by Warner Bros.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Cannes’ Marché du Film has named Spain its Country of Honor for the upcoming 2023 edition which will take place May 16-24 during the 76th edition of the Festival de Cannes. The Marché du Film will work with ICEX Spain Trade & Investment and ICAA – Institute of Cinematography & Audiovisual Arts to showcase Spanish talent and content, ranging from cinema to documentary, animation and extended reality. Spain follows India which became Cannes’ first official Country of Honor in 2022. The industry event launched the initiative last year to spotlight and celebrate different nations at each market edition. Spain’s cinema sector has been having a banner 2023. Last month, Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s debut feature “20,000 Species of Bees” won three awards at the Berlinale, while Albert Serra’s “Pacifiction” won two Cesar awards, and Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts” won the Cesar award for best foreign film. Recent successes last year also include Carla Simón’s “Alcarràs” which won last year’s Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and Alberto Mielgo’s “The Windshield Wiper” which won best animated short film at The Academy Awards).

Netflix has renewed adult-skewed animated anthology series Love, Death and Robots for a fourth season. The streamer announced the renewal Friday on Instagram.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter“Love, Death, and Robots” has been renewed for Season 4 at Netflix.The streaming giant made the announcement Friday via Instagram. The acclaimed episodic anthology series dropped its nine-episode third season on Netflix on May 20, 2022.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorAlthough the Creative Arts Emmys aren’t set to be handed out until Sept. 3 and Sept.

Coming off of an Oscar win for his short-animated film The Windshield Wiper, Alberto Mielgo is continuing his exploration of the meaning of love and the many forms it takes in “Jibaro”, his latest addition to the Love Death + Robots anthology.

Netflix back in March 2019, and this upcoming season of "Love, Death + Robots" will see him stepping into the director’s chair to helm his first piece of animation on one of the series’ nine episodes.  Many hardcore fans felt letdown a bit by the creativity and storylines in last year's season 2, but hopefully this new lineup for the Emmy Award-winning show gets things back on track.

The Windshield Wiper, directed by Alberto Mielgo and produced by Leo Sanchez, won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. “Animation is an art that includes every single art that you can imagine,” Mielgo said during their acceptance speech.

94th edition of the Academy Awards were set to be the return to normality, after the coronavirus pandemic inevitably tainted the 2021 ceremony. But the shock and discomfort caused by Will Smith, when he slapped comedian Chris Rock for making a joke about his wife, will pass into history. The incident immediately prompted a reaction on social media, and shifted the conversation away from the expected topics of conversation, such as diversity and the unexpected victory of CODA.

Using his self-taught artistic style of animation, Alberto Mielgo documents personal memories in an attempt to figure out the societal meaning of love in The Windshield Wiper. He asked friends and family what ‘love’ means to them, and their vastly different responses prompted him to ponder the question himself.