Camila Kater is an artist, director, animator and educator from Sao Paulo (Brazil). She recently directed the multi-award winning short film CARNE (Brazil, Spain, 2019), which received more than 95 awards worldwide, and was qualified for the 2021 Oscar®, Goya and EFA Academy Awards. The film is available online at The New York Times Op-Docs platform.
Her work questions patriarchal and neocolonial power relations, challenging taboos and social norms, and celebrates the texture and symbolic charge of materials through experimental artisanal practice in animation.
Kater is currently directing the animated series CARNE (in development) inspired by the short, she is the director of animation of the feature film “Ana, en passant” by Fernanda Salgado and she is directing her next animation short Ele está no meio de nós (The Lord be with you).
In addition to her personal projects, Kater serves as a lecturer and speaker, delivering talks and conducting experimental animation workshops at universities and festivals both in Brazil and around the world.
Photo by Julieta Sol (@julietasol.ph)
Festivals and awards
Education
2021-2023: RE: ANIMA European Joint Master in Animation, Luca School of Arts (Belgium), Lusofona University (Portugal) and Aalto University (Finland) – EMJMD Scholarship
2010-2015: Bachelor’s degree in Social Communication with specialisation in Media Studies at State University of Campinas (Unicamp), Brazil.
2012-2013: Sandwich Undergraduate Degree in Film and TV Production at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK (Science without Borders Scholarship).
Works and experience
2024 – now : Animation Director for ‘”Ana, en Passant”, animated feature film directed by Fernanda Salgado and produced by Apiário Estúdio Criativo (Brazil) and Sardinha em Lata (Portugal). Recently presented at Marché du Film Cannes as part of Annecy Animation Showcase 2025.
2023: Creator, Diretor and Writer for the CARNE series development funded by Spcine, São Paulo, Brazil. Recently selected at the official MIFA Pitches 2024 in the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
2022: Lecturer for the BA Animated Image course at Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal.
2021: Co-director of trailer animation for the almanac “FestA!” From SESC São Paulo, Brazil.
2020: Animation producer for the NGO IPAS video directed by Marcita. Brazil, USA.
2020: Animation producer for the NGO Leading From the South video directed by Marcita. Brazil, Netherlands.
2020: Guest Artist and Animation teacher at Escola Carlitos, São Paulo, Brazil.
2021: Animation Producer for the NGO EWI Ecumenical Women’s Initiative’s video directed by Helena Kampen. Brazil, UK, Croatia.
2019: Director, animator, scriptwriter – CARNE (Flesh), Brazil, Spain.
2018 – 2020: Secretary for the Brazilian Animation Association ABCA
2017-2018: Animation and art assistant in the stop-motion feature “Bob Spit: We don’t like people” at Coala Filmes, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
2016- now: Co-creator and Co-director of LESMA (La Extraordinária Semana de Mostras Animadas)
Artist in Residence
2022: 3 month Artist-in-Residence Programme at Q21/MuseumsQuartier – Vienna (Austria)
Festival Tricky Women/Tricky Realities 2020 artist-in-residence award
Exhibition
Google Arts and Culture Online Exibit: “Making Moving Image Tells Part II- Animation as a Medium for Personal Storytelling” / Curatorship: Graphy Animation and Thailand Creative & Design Center.
Cine OP Insite Exhibition: “Brazilian Animation Cinema: an Historical Perspective” in the Arts and Convention Center UFOP, Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil/ Curatorship: Cine OP, Cleber Eduardo & Fabio Yamaji)
Workshops, masterclasses and talks
October 2025: LEVANTE, Festival de Curtas-Metragens de Pelotas, Pelotas, RS, Brazil, “Animated Documentary: animator as the subject” workshop (8h).
October 2025: LEVANTE, Festival de Curtas-Metragens de Pelotas, Pelotas, RS, Brazil, panel discussion “Animação de Invenção” with Diego Akel and Victória Kaminski. 16/10
October 2025: UFPEL, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Pelotas, RS, Brazil, panel discussion with Diego Akel Carla Schneider. 16/10
September 2025: University of Michigan, Stamps School of Art & Design, Ann Arbor, USA, online masterclass “Decolonial Animation, experimentation and disobedience” for the Experimental Animation class.
June 2025: SMOF Stop Motion Our Fest, Buenos Aires, Argentina, masterclass “Animación Decolonial, experimentación y liberación” (Decolonial Animation: experimentation and freedom).
June 2025: SMOF Stop Motion Our Fest, Buenos Aires, Argentina, workshop tutor for the intensive course “Animated Documentary: animator as the subject” (12h)
May 2025: 4a Semana de Animação da USP, São Paulo, SP, Brazil, Mesa Mulheres na Animação: A nova cara da animação brasileira (Women in Animation Roundtable: The New Face of Brazilian Animation). 29/05
March 2025: Centro de Formação em Cinema de Animação Stop Motion, Sao Carlos, SP, Brazil, workshop tutor alongside Samuel Mariani for the 10h course “Alchemy of materials: mixed and experimental techniques in animation” (8h).
February 2025: Sesc Avenida Paulista, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil, workshop tutor alongside Samuel Mariani for the 12h course “Animated Documentary: animator as the subject”
October 2024: Centro Universitário Belas Artes de São Paulo, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil, Masterclass “Animated Documentary and Experimentation with Camila Kater”.
October 2024: ANIMAGE, Festival Internacional de Animação de Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brazil, juri member for the official competition alongside Dandara Palankof and Fernando Galrito.
October 2024: ANIMAGE, Festival Internacional de Animação de Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brazil, Invited panelist at the talk “How I became a professional in Animation”.
September – October 2024: Sesc Pinheiros, São Paulo, Brazil, workshop tutor alongside Samuel Mariani for the 12h course “Animated Documentary: animator as the subject” (12h).
September 2024: 1a Mostra Garotas do Motion, Sesc Itaquera, São Paulo, Brazil, Camila Kater was invited to present the screening and conduct the Q&A with the directors.
August 2024: 35th São Paulo International Short Film Festival – Curta Kinoforum, Invited panelist at the talk “Animadoras da América Latina”.
June 2024: Cine OP, Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Invited panelist at the talk “Autoras em Animação”.
June 2024: Mifa Pitches 2024 at Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Annecy, France. CARNE series pitch presentation in the Series and TV Specials official category.
February 2024: Instituición Universitaria Salazar y Herguera (IUSH), Medellín, Colombia. Masterclass about experimental animation and the process behind the short CARNE.
February 2024: Tecnológico de Antioquia (TdeA Intituición Universitaria), Medellín, Colombia. Masterclass about the short CARNE.
December 2023: Liangjie Culture Media Co., Bejing, China. Online Q&A session at “My Film Ideology”, a weekly screening/panel series of the Young Director Support Project (YDSP).
November 2023: Instituto de Artes da Unicamp, Campinas, Brazil. Guest artist at Wilson Lazaretti’s Animation Class
November 2023: Cine Severinas: Severinas Mulheres do Sertão, Fortaleza (CE), Brazil. Guest director at the online talk “Vivências de um cineclube feminista itinerante”.
October 2023: CalArts – Experimental Animation Visiting Artist Series, Valencia, California, USA. Guest director at the online Masterclass.
August 2023: Mostra Curta & Sesc Campinas, Campinas, Brazil. “Animação na palma da mão”
May 2023: Bauhaus University, Weimar, Germany. Workshop “Animated Vignettes: representation and inclusion in Animation”
December 2022: Senac Lapa Scipião, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Masterclass about the short CARNE for the post-graduation course
November 2022: CINANIMA 22 – 46º Festival Internacional de Cinema de Animação, Espinho, Portugal. Invited panelist at the festival’s symposium “Perpectives on Portuguese Animation”
March 2022: Talk at L’association Le renversé, Lauzanne, Switzerland
March 2022: Fulbright Austria. Online Q&A: “Award Winning animators making amazing animations”
April 2022: MONSTRA – Lisbon Animation Festival, Lisbon. Portugal. Workshop “Animated Documentary: animator as the subject”
April 2022: CREA – Asociación Galega de Profisionais da Dirección e Realización, Spain. Online talk about creative process in animation.
November 2021: Animasivo/ Centro Cultural de España en México, Mexico. Online talk with women in animation “El deseo de cambiarlo todo”
November 2021: Sesc Guarulhos, Brazil. Masterclass “Escrever cinema: animação – Ciclo online de palestras”
June 2021: Santos Film Fest, Santos, Brazil. “Animando com Livros e Publicações Antigas: Experimentações e Depoimentos da pandemia com Camila Kater e Samuel Mariani”
June 2021: Sesc Santos, Santos, Brazil. Workshop: Produção de um curta-metragem
June 2021: Universidade Católica Portuguesa UCP, Porto, Portugal. Online Masterclass “Artistic Processes in Animated Filmmaking”
April 2021: Diretoria de Cultura da Unicamp /Mostra Funciona Cultura, Campinas, Brazil. Masterclass Online “Animação Independente: subjetividade e experimentação”
March 2021 – Animac Lleida, Spain. Workshop “Animated Documentary: animator as the subject”
February 2021: Estúdio Escola, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Online Q&A on Independent Animation
December 2020 – Women in animation Panel (WIA)
October 2020: MONSTRA Lisbon Animation Festival, Lisbon, Portugal. Online Masterclass “Animação Manifesto: Processos Investigativos e experimentais no doc animado CARNE”.
November 2018 – CTR, ECA, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. Women in Animation Talk “2ª Semana da Animação na USP”
2015 – 2018: NCA, Núcleo de Cinema de Animação de Campinas, Campinas, Brazil. Animation workshops at several cultural institutions (circuito Spcine, public libraries and schools)
October 2015: Mostra Curta, Sesc Campinas, Campinas, Brazil. Stop Motion Workshop
Camila Kater 