In James A. Castillo’s The Quinta’s Ghost, Francisco de Goya arrive at La Quinta del Sordo in 1819 and is haunted by dark visions and ghosts as his health takes a serious turn and he creates his famous Black Paintings.
Awards Buzz spoke with Castilllo and producer Raúl Rocha about their interest in Goya and creating something that isn’t all that common, animated horror.
“Like many people that work in my industry, I think that sometimes you find yourself having to argue with people that don’t work in the animation industry and they only understand or they only see the more children-friendly animated projects, which is the vast majority of animated movies. And this idea that animation can only serve one purpose, which is to tell this more children-friendly stories that are very wholesome and for the whole family. It’s true, it can do that, but it can also do a lot of other things – and that’s something that I think a lot of people in the industry will share this opinion with me – it almost feels like the medium is always underutilized, especially for more indie genre-specific type of movies. So I always felt like there was part of the impetus to making the movie that definitely was motivated by this idea of, I have a feeling that if you try to do it right and you do it without any preconception or any fear, you just go for doing a horror film the same way you would do it in live action, just utilizing the medium for your own benefit, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to create something as scary as something that is done in live action.”
Watch the video above to hear more about their creative process and the chance to bring this film to audiences all around the world.
The Quinta’s Ghost is on the Oscar shortlist for Best Animated Short.
