The image for the cultural event has been entrusted to the Chilean illustrator María Jesús Contreras, who has used a modernized vintage aesthetic to represent the festival’s four decades of history.
“Through the use of highly recognizable elements that revive audiovisual narrative traditions and enrich the visuals with almost handcrafted textures through graphic work, Contreras has created a faithful reflection of what Cinema Jove is: a long-standing festival that highlights the power of youth to transform and appropriate more classic languages, while also finding new ways to tell stories,” explained the festival’s art director, Ada Diez.
The illustrator’s work is known for walking a fine line between fantasy and realism. The poster she created for the festival showcases her skill in graphic synthesis and her vision for discovering evocative imagery.
“It’s a graphic calling card where we use elements historically linked to Cinema Jove: the moon, the audience as both spectator and creator, and the big screen as a reflection and showcase of what has happened,” Diez elaborated.
María Jesús Contreras’s illustrations are known for their intense and saturated colors, with fear and humor serving as her main sources of inspiration.
The Chilean artist publishes a weekly illustration in The New York Times as part of the Saturday morning column. She currently works for newspapers, magazines, and supplements such as The Washington Post, Texas Monthly, The New Yorker, The Telegraph, The Economist, Los Angeles Times, and New York Magazine, as well as for brands like Gucci, Hermès, Apple, Lush, McDonald’s, U.S. public radio NPR, and the publisher Penguin Random House.
Her work has appeared on platforms like It’s Nice That, Domestika, WeTransfer, Colossal, and Creative Boom. In 2022, she won the YoungGuns Award from The One Club for Creativity, which honors creative professionals under 30 worldwide.
The following year, she won the AI42 Award from American Illustration, was shortlisted for the World Illustration Awards, and was invited to serve on the juries for the Latin American Design Awards, the D&AD New Blood Portfolio Competition, and the YoungGuns Awards. In 2024, she was a jury member for the ADC Annual Awards and was recognized by Forbes magazine as one of the 50 most powerful women in Chile.
The poster will be presented on May 22 at 7:00 PM in Sala 7 of the Rialto building.
