This month, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) announced the 44 projects longlisted for their Student Awards, and La Mar—a stunningly intimate account of community resilience by Mexican filmmaker, journalist, and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies, Jean Chapiro '25—made the cut.
El Bosque, a small fishing village on the coast of Tabasco, Mexico, is disappearing. Nominated for the documentary category, La Mar follows Guadalupe Cobos, a fisher and activist, in the fight for recognition and relocation as rising seas threaten to submerge her village. For a year, families fish, pray, and share their lives among the ruins. Chapiro's quiet, poetic approach focuses the lens on individuals' stories as they grapple with the simultaneous relief and heartbreak of leaving El Bosque.
Selected for the 2026 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, the 2025 Morelia International Film Festival—which brings Mexican films to a global stage—and the 2026 Ambulante (traveling) Documentary Film Festival, La Mar has already been recognized internationally by organizations that celebrate documentary as a catalyst for change. This year's BAFTA Student Awards welcomed submissions from over 600 universities across the globe, which were reviewed by a group of 300 global BAFTA members. The 15 finalists—three per category, for Animation, Documentary, Live Action, Games, and Immersive—will be announced on Monday, June 22, 2026.
Chapiro not only holds an MFA in Film from the School of the Arts, but an MS from Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism. She uses her skills across journalism and filmmaking to bring salient stories across political, cultural, and geographical borders. Chapiro won a 2023 Student Academy Award for her short documentary Hasta Encontrarlos, was nominated for an Ariel Award in 2025, and was named a Pulitzer Center Post-Grad Reporting Fellow in 2022. As a producer, she was shortlisted for the 98th Academy Awards and won two student BAFTA awards. In 2021, Chapiro graduated Summa Cum Laude from The University of Pennsylvania with a triple major in Cinema Studies, Communication, and Visual Studies.
