Dec 13, 2024

2025 Academy Awards Short Contender: “In The Stars,” directed by Gabriel Osorio Vargas

Cartoon Brew spotlights an animated short that has been nominated for the 2025 Academy Awards.

In this issue, we present “In The Stars” by Chilean filmmaker Gabriel Osorio Vargas. This short won the Best Animated Short Award at the Lebu International Film Festival and qualified for an Academy Award.

In this galactic yet down-to-earth and intimate tale, two sisters, the last of their kind hiding out in a devastated land, squabble over how to survive in the face of an imperial invasion. Living on the water, the sisters must fight back when they are discovered. The short film was co-produced by Santiago, Chile-based Punkrobot Studio and Lucasfilm.

Cartoon Brew: Your “Star Wars” story is based on the true story of the Selknum people of Patagonia, victims of a massacre in the early 20th century. What challenges did you face in adapting this story to the Star Wars canon in a way that is universal and true to the actual events? There is a theme of colonization in the Star Wars universe that has always resonated deeply with me. As a Chilean and a Latin American, my childhood is filled with memories and stories of the empires and heroes that colonized the region, but the past of those who lived here before it was colonized has been erased. This parallel between the fictional empire of Star Wars and the colonization of Latin America has been a haunting image of mine since I first saw the original trilogy as a child.

As a Latin American, it was crucial for me to establish that the sisters in the story live in a place far removed from what is understood as the “galactic center.” For example, during the writing process, I wanted to include a classic Jedi with a lightsaber, but as I tried to draw parallels with the people of Selknum, I realized that the inhabitants of this planet do not even know what a Jedi is. They do not share the same name, “The Force.” It is part of the “Western” culture in the Star Wars universe, so to speak. Just as the people of Kaweskar did not have a word for the concept of “police,” the inhabitants of this distant world would have no knowledge of the Jedi or their culture.

This parallel led me to remove some of the symbolic elements of Star Wars imagery. Instead of holograms, there are pictures on stone; instead of lightsabers, there are canoes; instead of force ghosts, there are stars.

What about this story or concept resonated with you and inspired you to direct this film? Patagonia is a remote region, so colonization by European settlers began only in the late 19th and early 20th century; the people of Selk'nam, Kawésqar, and Aónikenk faced delayed and cruel colonization. They were hunted and enslaved by the colonizers, displayed in a “human zoo,” and exterminated by Western diseases. This genocide continued until the 1900s, less than a century ago.

Being a relatively recent piece of history, it was rarely discussed during my childhood in the 1990s. Many of my generation grew up believing that the Patagonians were simply “savages” who had been exterminated long ago by natural causes. We were never taught about the atrocities they faced. More than once as a child, I was insulted by being called “alacarfe” (a derogatory term meaning ignorant, uncivilized, or dumb) because of the color of my skin. Much later, I learned that this appellation was imposed on the Kaweskar people by the settlers. I also learned that the community was not extinct, but that it had a rich cultural heritage that was obliterated. They faced injustice and discrimination, and the name of their people became synonymous with shame.

“In the Stars” was created as a way for us Chileans, Argentines, and Latin Americans to look back and see the history of our land - our tragic past - from a different perspective. My intention is to open the door to dialogue about our past, to confront the mistakes our country has made, and to transform what was once shame and tragedy into hope, pride and dignity. Today, more than ever, it is our national responsibility to repair and move forward as an inclusive nation. As filmmakers, we would like to think that the stories we tell can help shape the reality in which we live.

That is why “In the Stars” touches on themes of injustice and loneliness: sisters who have lost everything - their people, their culture, their land, and their mothers - through the injustice of cruel colonization. Stories like this one, and my earlier short story “Bear Story,” have always fascinated me because of their darkness and tragedy. I look into the darkness to find the light that may exist there. And what surprises me most is that the answer is found precisely in the worldview of the Patagonian people.

When I began writing the script, I consulted books by authors such as José Luis Alonso Marcante. Similarly, documentaries by Patricio Guzman, such as “Pearl Buttons,” were a direct source of inspiration for the story.

In addition, our team traveled to Carquinca, one of the southernmost places in the world, located on the island of Tierra del Fuego. There we experienced the places and landscapes inhabited by the natives, which directly influenced the script and visual style of this short film. We scanned trees, rocks, and shells in 3D, which we later transformed into visual elements that faithfully captured the Patagonian atmosphere. During the trip, we also discovered hand paintings left by the Aonikenk people on their massive stone walls. This is called “Cerro Castillo's Wall of Hands,” a basic, raw form of art and expression, but one of overwhelming beauty. It is a scene in which Tichina tells the story of her mother through a rock painting.

One of the things I realized in making this short film is that many Chileans still do not know the true history of the southern part of our country. In that sense, I hope that “In the Stars” will be an opening for a new generation to dialogue about a dark chapter of our history - an important chapter to face.

“In the Stars” blends authentic handcrafted models scanned in 3D with characters and environments created in computer graphics. From the beginning, it was important for us to present a handmade world, detailed yet imperfect. The story takes place on a distant planet almost forgotten by the empire. For me, this imperfection is an essential part of Latin American identity. Our work is artisanal and handmade. On the contrary, they are raw materials of immeasurable beauty. The character designs are heavily influenced by the body art and paintings of the Selknum people. Of course, all designs are inspired by, not copied directly from, their work. Each dot and line has its own cosmological meaning, which we felt it was important to respect.

The animation was created in the same spirit, intentionally removing frames to concentrate on the essence of each character's pose, rather than having the computer automatically interpolate. It was important to me that the short films and their characters be human. This idea shaped all the art and techniques we developed for the short films.