Corazón de Cartón selected for the Brooklyn Film Festival 2026
The short film Corazón de Cartón, by Catalina Ferreira Martín, an alumna of the Master’s Degree in Illustration and Animation at ESDESIGN, Barcelona School of Design, part of Planeta Formación y Universidades, was selected in the Animation category of the Brooklyn Film Festival 2026, adding another recognition to the international journey of this animation project.
Corazón de Cartón: a poetic perspective on extreme inequality
This is an animated short film that addresses extreme inequality through an intimate story about the illegal organ trade. The project uses cardboard and stop-motion techniques to create a metaphor for the precariousness, survival and resilience of the vulnerable lives portrayed in the story. Cardboard serves as the common thread, acting as a fragile and disposable material that can nevertheless support, transform and endure. Likewise, cut-out animation and digital compositing provide the final visual language that turns this intimate and symbolic story into a reflection on a global issue.
Without dialogue and supported by a visual and symbolic narrative, the story focuses on a father who, faced with the need to feed his son, decides to sell a kidney in a market where organs are displayed as luxury goods. In this way, the work creates a silent and dehumanised universe in which bodies are treated as products within a production chain.
The project creates a setting in which the bond between the two introduces an emotional and human dimension that transforms the illegal organ trade into a visual metaphor that confronts two opposing realities: the need of those who are forced to use their own bodies to survive and the privilege of those who can turn something vital into a consumer object. At its core, it explores the debate around the commodification of life and the false choices created by poverty. The short film invites viewers to reflect on the extent to which necessity conditions our ability to choose.
Brooklyn Film Festival, a platform for cinematic innovation
The Brooklyn Film Festival (BFF) is an international competitive film festival organised by the Brooklyn Film Society, a non-profit organisation based in New York. The festival aims to give visibility to independent cinema, support a new generation of filmmakers with their own distinctive voices each year, and promote creative freedom without censorship. With 28 years of history, the festival is now a qualifying event for the Canadian Screen Awards, and several of its award-winning films have subsequently been nominated for BAFTAs and Oscars.
Under the theme “The Invitation”, the 29th edition of the festival took place from 29 May to 7 June 2026 at three different venues: BRIC Arts Media House (Fort Greene), 100 Sutton Studios (Greenpoint) and Wythe Hotel (Williamsburg), as well as through an online programme. This edition brought together 134 films from 30 different countries across six categories: narrative feature, documentary, narrative short, documentary short, experimental and animation.
Among the films selected in the Animation category was Corazón de Cartón, by Catalina Ferreira Martín, which was screened as a US premiere.
This recognition reflects the professional opportunities achieved by ESDESIGN students and alumni. Through practical, creative education connected to the industry, the school encourages its students to develop their own projects and turn their vision into professional opportunities.
