Mexican Oscar winners will learn to use AI as a support tool

MADRID.

The producer Nicolás Celis, the production designer Eugenio Caballero, the sound engineers Michelle Couttolenc and Jaime Baksht, as well as Angélica Lares, all of them Mexican Oscar winners, were part of the opening activities of the third edition of Iberseries Platino, held in Spain.

In addition to talking about how film talent in different areas is palpable and real in our country, placing us as a respected industry in the rest of the world, they also added to a topic that has been part of the conversation in recent months: the presence that artificial intelligence increasingly has in the world of audiovisuals.

“The idea that it is here and that it is something that is going to touch us all, that is something imminent. In my case, since I started making films, many things have changed at a technological level. We started making non-digital, analog cinema, and we had to change.

“For me, the combination of traditional construction methods and the use of technology has given me good results and that is what I always try to apply. I think that with that same premise you have to understand it and you have to learn to use it.

Adding to this idea that not all films require the use or application of artificial intelligence was Nicolás Celis, 36 years old, who produced the successful Rome by Alfonso Cuarón, which won the Oscar for Best International Film in 2019.

“I see it simply as a tool and since I am interested in more independent films, I am not thinking about looking for ideas there.

“For me, it's more of a tool for music, certain processes and simplifying. With independent cinema it helps me to be looking for certain stories and I feel that I want to continue making this type of films,” said Celis, who is currently working on a co-production between Mexico, Russia and Switzerland.

Under the title of Mexican Oscar winners. Reflection of quality and talent in the Mexican audiovisual industry, Yesterday this Mexican quintet offered a talk in which they all confessed that they never made their respective winning films thinking about a golden statuette and that rather they made them with desire and passion, despite having everything against them.

“Guillermo del Toro did not have the name he has now and it opens many doors for him. The idea of ​​us constructing a fantasy film was difficult. Basically it was a very passionate, almost suicidal, sum of talents between the two groups (Spain and Mexico).

“At that time, the idea of ​​the Oscar did not even cross my mind, it was not like now that in some way interest has opened up in what is being done by Latin American creators. The truth is that the Oscar surprised us all, it was a very special year (2007), there were 16 Mexican nominees, because three films from The Three Friends came together: Alfonso, Alejandro González Iñárritu and Guillermo,” said Caballero, 51 years.

After a talk in which they shared their experiences, filmmakers went to the Stage México Produce stand to cut the ribbon for the start of activities of said commercial representation of the Mexican audiovisual industry, which seeks to generate alliances between Mexico and the rest of Latin America, in the framework of the third edition of Iberseries Platino, which started yesterday with more talks and the possibility of promoting our country as a film destination.