Paloma Baeza’s second feature film will celebrate the life and work of Frida Kahlo. Baeza is set to direct an as-yet untitled animated movie about the renowned Mexican artist for the UK’s Lupus Films and Universal Content Group, according to Variety.
Using 2D animation alongside some live-action elements, the pic will portray Kahlo’s personal and professional lives. Baeza, who is of Mexican descent, said she feels a particularly strong connection to Kahlo and her story. “Frida Kahlo approached life with such vibrant energy, and was ahead of her time in many ways,” the filmmaker emphasized. “With my Mexican heritage, it is particularly meaningful to have this opportunity to explore her deep and complex personality, as well as her relationship with Mexico’s past and its future. Lupus Films have a reputation as a highly respected artisanal animation studio so this project couldn’t be in better hands,” she added.
Baeza will not be the only woman working on the project. She’ll also be joined by exclusively female producers, Lupus Films managing director Camilla Deakin revealed. “[Kahlo’s] story is startlingly modern and a powerful representation of how to embrace challenges and conflict in a meaningful and positive way,” she said. “As an all-female team of director and producers we are excited to be telling Frida’s story through animation, allowing us to capture the vivid palette of her work, her inspirations, and the colors and textures of Mexico, and we are delighted that such a talented director as Paloma Baeza shares our passion for this project.”
No word on specific producing or screenwriting credits yet.
Known for her vivid self-portraits and magical realist style, Kahlo explored gender, identity, class, and race in her paintings. She gained most of her recognition late in life and posthumously. Kahlo struggled with health issues for most of her life, stemming from injuries she sustained in a bus crash as a teenager. Kahlo died in 1954 at the age of 47.
Julie Taymor previously brought Kahlo’s story to life in 2002’s “Frida.” The film nabbed six Oscar nominations, including one for Salma Hayek’s lead performance. Kahlo was also a character in Pixar’s Día de Muertos story “Coco.”
Baeza is currently directing her first feature, “The Toymaker’s Secret,” an animated-live-action hybrid about an American family who moves to London and fears their old Victorian house may be haunted. She won a BAFTA and ANNIE Award for her animated short “Poles Apart.” Her other shorts include “The Odds” and “Watchmen,” and she helmed an episode of British anthology series “Coming Up.” Also an actress, she’s appeared in “MI-5,” “The Way We Live Now,” and “Rebel Heart.”
