I Am Frankelda

Australian Premiere

“Gothic sets with baroque architecture serve as the backdrop to the similarly ornate puppets…every space looks lovingly handcrafted.” – Variety

With their studio Cinema Fantasma, Roy and Arturo Ambriz have built a phantasmagorical world in I Am Frankelda, soaked in Mexican tradition, tropes of gothic horror and operatic musical theatre. Every set and puppet is strikingly handcrafted – ornate, textured and visually intoxicating – a frame-by-frame labour of obsession by the sibling filmmakers.

Set in 19th-century Mexico, Francisca Imelda is a young woman whose dark stories are dismissed and ridiculed in a world that refuses to take female writers seriously. She reinvents herself as Frankelda and is transported into a subconscious realm which she conjures from her own imagination. How will she restore the balance between fiction and reality before both worlds collapse forever?

Based on the beloved Max series Frankelda's Book of Spooks, the Ambriz brothers’ rendering of I Am Frankelda is simultaneously a prequel and sequel, making it fully accessible to newcomers.

Festival Appearances & Awards
Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2025 – Official Selection
Fantasia International Film Festival 2025 – Official Selection
Sitges Film Festival 2025 – Official Selection