2022 Princess Grace Award
Nominated by: David Riker, Princess Grace Award winner (Film 1995)
Cary Grant Film Honor
Río Castañeda was born in México City and migrated to Washington DC in 2014. They graduated high school from Duke Ellington School of the Arts in 2017, and from Massachusetts College of Art and Design with a BFA in Animation with Departmental Honors in 2021.
Their thesis film “My Weaving Hands” features the art of Mayan backstrap weaving in collaboration with indigenous cooperatives from Chiapas, Mexico. It has been presented in over 20 international film festivals, winning best animated short and original score at the Mexico-Prague Iberoamerican Film Festival; Best Indigenous Short at Arica Nativa Rural Film Festival in Chile; and the Young Filmmakers Award at the Festival de Cine Latino Americano in Texas. The film will be featured in Smithsonians Native Cinema Showcase in New Mexico in August 2022.
