18/08/2026 - The $4.76 million Mexican-Spanish-Canadian-Latvian co-production marks the Mexican animator’s feature debut and is currently in pre-production for a planned 2028 release

Mexican stop-motion filmmaker Sofía Carrillo is prepping her feature debut, Insectarium, an 85-minute, Spanish-language family animation bringing together a four-country co-production spanning Mexico, Spain, Canada and Latvia. The project, currently in pre-production, boasts a $4.76 million (approximately €4.11 million) budget and is targeting a June 2028 release.

Written by Mexican screenwriter Monika Revilla, Insectarium unfolds in a world where insects have become extinct. Lexi, a solitary young woman who catalogues and preserves specimens for the private collection of her uncle, renowned entomologist Dr Krause, accidentally removes the pin holding a rare moth in place. She takes the specimen home in an attempt to conceal her mistake, only to discover that the creature can come back to life. The revelation eventually pushes Lexi to confront her fears and attempt to free the insects held inside Krause’s collection.

Carrillo sees stop motion as integral, rather than incidental, to the story. The filmmaker describes the central idea as one of restoring movement and freedom to apparently inert creatures, linking the animation process itself to a form of “animism”. Visually, the insect-free world will employ empty compositions and a washed-out, melancholic palette, contrasting with the vivid colours of the specimens themselves. Sound design will likewise evoke what has disappeared, filling the city, Lexi’s home and the insectarium with echoes of absent insect life.

The film is being produced by Nicolás Celis, Valérie Delpierre, Matīss Kaža and Daniela Mujica, with the production companies listed as Mexico’s Cuadernos de Cine, Spain’s Inicia Films, Canada’s Productions Ocho and Latvia’s Trickster Pictures. Celis’s credits include Alfonso Cuarón’s Oscar winner Roma, whilst Kaža co-wrote and produced Gints Zilbalodis’s LUX Audience Award-winning animated feature Flow.

Delpierre, founder of Barcelona-based Inicia Films, has backed filmmakers including Pilar Palomero, Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, Laura Ferrés and Carla Simón, while Mujica founded Montreal-based Productions Ocho in 2020. Meanwhile, Flow scooped the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 97th Academy Awards in March 2025. It made history as the first-ever Latvian film to win an Oscar.

Backers for the project include Mexico’s EFICINE, Spain’s ICAA and ICEC funds and Ibermedia Next, alongside Telefilm Canada and the National Film Centre of Latvia. The financing plan currently indicates a remaining gap of approximately $1.88 million (€1.62 million).

Carrillo has previously won two Ariel Awards for the animated shorts Prita Noire and Cerulia, and worked on Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, specialising in puppet wardrobe design. Her Insectarium crew includes DoP Olivia Luengas, production designer Alissarin Ducolomb, animation supervisor Mayrení Senior Seda, and puppet designers León Fernández and Eduard Puertas.