First, I would like to express my gratitude for the opportunity to be interviewed at your distinguished

festival in Zagreb, Croatia: it is a great blessing. Puerto Rico, as it has been established, beyond its

sociopolitical relationship with the United States, has a colorful and essentially rich culture that

deserves to be shown in the World. The beauty of its coastal waters is its greatest attraction, from

the prism that captivates my eyes: for all this and for my affinity with the most precious element -

water- I understand that its uniqueness is one of our greatest visual strengths, and more, when we

can find the uniqueness of our attractive coasts well-decorated both with colonial and historical

corners and rural landscapes. This is soothed by the attractive power of our Sea/Ocean bonding, that

is indivisible. As an independent filmmaker, for me it has been magical and surreal to be able to

create powerful stories that are nourished by the beauty of the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic

Ocean, intermingled with the purity that emerges from its waters and the warm hearts of our

islanders.

As a Puerto Rican and as a Latin young filmmaker, it is a great honor to be considered as one of the

Notable Alumnus of such a distinguished academic institution. I was accepted in an intensive

summer program (Acting for the Film) the year after I finished my first short film as a leading actor,

writer, and director: New York Film Academy gave me the opportunity to expand my mind and vision

as an actor who also directs, produce, compose, and write, through the opportunity to participate in

various projects as an actor with emerging filmmakers of different countries of the World. This

allowed me not only to enrich my essence as an actor, but also enriched the search for my own voice

as a director. I still find it incredible that a Puerto Rican can be part of the Outstanding Alumni of the

New York Film Academy List, therefore, my mission to continue making quality projects that stand

out abroad is one of my great commitments in life.

Princëney is definitely a novelty for me, in multiple ways. It represents my first project with a

commercial vision, from its conception to its birth as an audiovisual piece. Although I already had the

opportunity to include animation in a previous short film that was considered for the Oscars, after

the Cannes 2022 experience, I wanted to broaden my gaze towards the challenge of directing a fully

animated project. For such purposes, I decided to co-create a new story with the Peruvian animator,

Jorge Caceres, who was able to translate each one of my ideas, with the level of specificity that I

longed for: I chose the predominant colors of the project, the style of the characters, the camera

shots to represent, in short, everything that could make the project attractive to international

festivals. Thank God, la Virgen Guadalupana, and the Angels, we had the opportunity to be

considered for the Oscars 2023 and it was presented at the Academy Screening Room (ASR). We

cannot forget that Princëney challenges the vision of the principality presented by distinguished

companies such as Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks, by including the first Caribbean and LGBTTQIA+

prince candidate in a leading animated character. The narrative of this emotive short film is very

deep in symbols and shows how it is still necessary to advance more in the inclusion of diversity; It is

not only to include diverse characters in movies, for example, in secondary roles or forced roles (or

narratives). It is also narrating the stories of heroes and heroines who contribute to diversity, from

the perspective and braveness of leading roles. I always highlight the role of the actor Luke

Macfarlane and its contribution to diversity roles, with whom I hope one day to be able to

collaborate in an animated LGBTTQIA+ project. It is great to know from producers that know him

very well that is a humble actor and it inspires me a lot. We are glad that we establish a precedent

with Princëney and its narrative, whose particular name is a wink to Walt Disney’s contribution to

animation: now we challenge Disney, Pixar, and DreamWorks to see our project and follow our

dream, mission, and concept, those that we proposed in Princëney.

ONE will always represent a before and after in my career as a director. The project was my first

consideration to the Oscars and was done as a tribute to the thousands of lives lost by Category V

Hurricane Maria. It was filmed just months after the devastation in Puerto Rico and has immense

value and evokes great nostalgia. ONE has won a great number of awards and laurels around the

world, with the peculiarity of been screened on every inhabited continent in the world. It features

the voices of Puerto Rican singers (tenors Antonio Barasorda (RIP) and Danny Rivera) and great

actresses (Gilda Haddock, among other colleagues). ONE has been presented at Michigan State

University and New York University, by invitation, distinguished contexts from which our film has

been analyzed from the academic perspective. For its merits, I was nominated to the first edition of

the Earthshot Prize, an incredible initiative created by Prince William. The narrative that

accompanied the nomination highlighted the relevance of the climate change topic and the

importance of raising awareness about environmental issues and our planet earth, from the

audiovisual contribution. ONE has not been distributed, like others of my projects that are already

on platforms in Spain and Puerto Rico. In a decade, it would be interesting to screen it again in

Puerto Rico and analyze how we changed from this experience and what is next. For now, I keep it as

a great audiovisual and documentary relic of the intense experience that we live in Puerto Rico (that

was shown in so many festivals of the World), from the point of view of climate change and its

consequences.

ONE, 2HOOM, and Princëney opened doors in my life that I will never forget. The opportunity to

be the first Puerto Rican to present at the American Pavilion in Cannes 2022 and to be

considered for the Oscars, three times in a row, remains engraved in the history of Puerto Rico

and in my mind. I feel very grateful for these great opportunities, particularly because they are

social projects that were carried out without any federal or national financial support. The name

of Puerto Rico has been called in unimagined countries and continents with these three projects,

with more than one hundred laurels and more than fifty international awards. I must say that I

love great challenges and unlock first opportunities: more than anything, I love contributing to

the history of my country and I am engaged with social causes. I think that I accomplished more

that I can never imagine in the last four years: I cannot stop saying thank you to God for all of these gifts I received from heaven. Recently, I received the First Distinctive Medal for Filmmakers

from the House of Representatives of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico: it

means a lot to me. Each achievement serves as a motivation to continue being an eternal learner

and to do more, with all my heart and passion.

I love to create hybrids and to innovate: from integrating mobile phones with animation to

presenting topics that not everyone dares to talk about. As an actor, I do the same: I love

representing minority leading roles and raising awareness about diversity issues in all its fields. You

can expect anything from me, I must say: today I may be directing a project with high quality

cameras and tomorrow I may be conceptualizing a project with new technologies, apps and

cellphones. I do not repeat patterns: however, you can see my essence and my particular style of

storytelling reflected in all the projects. I work hard to create each project as a whole: all the

elements have to be in balance and thanks to the experience I can feel -or have the intuition- of this

particular moment when everything is in the correct position, time, and space. This moment is the

best gift that any actor, composer, writer, or director can experienced.

More than changing certain aspects of the Oscars, I believe it is essential that the Academy members

can have the opportunity to know more about the Puerto Rican distinguished actors and directors

who currently live in the Island and their contribution to the film industry in this new century, in the

same way that they already know about our distinguished actors and directors who reside in the

diaspora and have conquered this distinguished context through their wonderful projects. We also

have very talented actors and actresses that can perform leading roles: with our particular accent,

language, and essence, and it has to be noticed. In fact, it would be lovely that relevant directors can

visit our Island to get inspired and film new projects, and, more than anything, that they can show

our Island as “Puerto Rico”, instead of representing other different beautiful corners of the World in

film as it was done masterfully in the last decades. Precisely, this was my mission the last four years,

with all the challenges and vicissitudes of creating from the independent filmmaking corner and

making a little space in the Academy Screening Room for Puerto Rican original stories. It is still a

surreal experience that I cannot describe and I feel that I already accomplished it.

When you love what you do and have a clear mission, the Universe provides. My plans are directed

to continue doing projects with purpose and I am sure that this will continue to open the right doors,

at the right time. I am open to surprises from the Universe and I have no other expectation than to

enjoy what I do throughout the art/science of filmmaking and, definitely, position issues that

deserve to be discussed in Worldwide forums, such as climate change, inclusion, stigma (example:

HIV/AIDS), and collective connection and unconditional love, in post-pandemic times.

Although I have several pre-finished projects that were made before the pandemic, currently, I am

giving a new turn to my future projects: I am in that intense process of pre-production and breaking

old paradigms. I promise that soon you will know more about these new steps and that I will put all

my heart in these new adventures. You are all invited to follow me in my social media (FB: AG Orloz,

Instagram: ag_orloz, and Twitter AG_ORLOZ) to know more about my new horizons: I love to make

new allies from different part of the World and I am always willing to hear about emerging and

experienced actors and actresses that are open to create from the Indie Film perspective.

We are celebrating a lot! Thanks God, Princëney is just beginning its festival cycle and has already

received awards and laurels: it has been awarded for Best Animated Short Film and has received

three mentions (Two for Best Animated Short Film and one for Best Sound Design). We already have

our first Official Selections: Canada, Italy, Venezuela, Los Angeles, France, Peru, and London have

already witnessed our beloved Princëney, summed to the Academy. It has been a great blessing that

Croatia welcomed our project through this very special interview that we will never forget. I hope

that all of you can enjoy our first Caribbean and LGBTTQIA+ candidate for prince, his vicissitudes and

his achievements: I promise you will love his brave heart. It has been an immense honor to be able

to share experiences with all of you and I wish you the best of success in such a distinguished

festival. Puno hvala, Croatia!