In a country where making one’s way in cinema requires talent, perseverance, and conviction, Mexican filmmaker Antonia Sofía Silva Alvarado received news capable of transforming her career. She won the Jenkins-Del Toro Scholarship 2026, one of the most important supports for young filmmakers in Mexico, which will take her to the United Kingdom to pursue postgraduate studies in animation.
Originally from Mexico City and 28 years old, Antonia was announced as the winner during the 41st edition of the Guadalajara International Film Festival, one of the main platforms for Ibero-American cinema.
Thanks to the financial support, she will be able to continue her training at prestigious institutions such as the Royal College of Art in London or the National Film and Television School (NFTS) in Buckinghamshire.
The Jenkins-Del Toro Scholarship was created in 2019 with the support of Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro and is funded by the Jenkins Foundation. The program grants US$60,000 for film studies abroad and aims to professionalize new voices in national cinema.
This year, the call received 136 project proposals, reflecting the growing interest of new generations in building a career in a highly competitive industry.
Antonia received the recognition with The Song of the Jaguar, a work soon to premiere at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France, considered the most important gathering in the world in that genre.
The film tells the story of a woman who migrates to Mexico City and, as the days pass, enters into a dialogue with herself until remembering that in another life she was a jaguar. The project is inspired by Lidia Rivera, a woman of Oaxacan origin whose story shaped the cinematic narrative.
Before this achievement, the young filmmaker studied cinema at the National School of Cinematic Arts of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, one of the country’s most prestigious institutions in audiovisual training.
“My goal is to develop an animated feature film project during the master’s program and return to Mexico to share what I have learned, to contribute my part to the country’s film industry,” the filmmaker said.
Mexican animation is going through a stage of growing international recognition. In recent years, new generations of creators have managed to open space in global festivals, also driven by the international prestige achieved by Guillermo del Toro, Oscar winner for The Shape of Water and Pinocchio.
The director himself sent a message to the winner and underlined the importance of supporting new voices.
“We believe that the narrative future of cinema is in the hands of young people, and this is one more opportunity, a new voice, that we can promote. I believe it can change one by one the language of cinema in our country and in Latin America,” Del Toro said.
Antonia thus became the seventh beneficiary of the scholarship, which has previously taken young Mexicans to specialized schools in Cuba, the Czech Republic, Spain, the United States, and Australia.
In an environment where many artists create amid economic limitations and scarce opportunities, the story of Antonia Sofía Silva Alvarado represents much more than an award. It confirms that voices continue to emerge from Mexico capable of imagining new worlds and projecting them onto the global screen.
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