Acclaimed filmmaker and artist Catya Plate’s Las Nogas—the final short of her eco-thrilling trilogy—is up for three awards at the 2024 Portland Festival of Cinema, Animation, and Technology: Best Environmental Short, Best Stop Motion Short, and Best Screenplay in a Short Animation. The festival runs from August 21st–25th in Portland, Oregon.
The film will screen on Thursday, August 22nd, at 8 PM at the Theory Theater at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in the “Tales of PFCAT: Horror-ish Short Films & Animations” Block.
Ms. Plate will also participate in a panel about “The Future of Stop-Motion Animation” on Thursday 22nd from 5:15-6:15 PM at the Kendall Planetarium.
The director describes the short as an animated metaphor that upholds environmental awareness using her quirky Clothespins Freaks, et al., and stop-motion to tell the story of the struggling survivors in 2523 Earth—now a dry wasteland destroyed by humans. Dr. Alma, a fluffy, brilliant Vulkeet (a parakeet/vulture hybrid), must cure the only creatures who can save the world by bringing back the rain—the bizarre, loveable Homeys who have fallen ill with a mysterious illness.
The character voices include Misty Lee (Alma), John McBride (Hitch & Homey), Phil Miler (Gormal & Albert), Clarissa Jacobson (Queen Bee & Marilyn Bee), and Alessandra Levy (Singing Bees & Homeys).
Catya Plate served as the lead on production, direction, script, animation, design, and cinematography. LAS NOGAS was co-produced by Todd Aven, Carolyn Maher was assistant director, Todd Aven and Alana Corwin edited the film, Joe Bratcher was script consultant, Antoni Mairata was the composer, with Neil Benezra creating the sound design. Songs featured include “Water Renewal,” written by Plate, and “Be My Little Baby Bumblebee,” by Henry I. Marshall/Stanley Murphy.
In April 2023, Catya Plate received for Las Nogas a prestigious 2023 NYC Women’s Fund Grant Award by the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) and New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). Since the film’s launch in the festival circuit in July 2023, Plate won the GREEN PLANET AWARD at the Oscar-Qualifying Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival (World Premiere); BEST ANIMATED FILM at Fano International Film Festival (Italy Premiere); Jury Prize: BEST SHORT at the Green Film Festival of San Francisco; and BEST ANIMATION at Queens World Film Festival (New York Premiere).
Las Nogas screened at the Oscar Qualifying HollyShorts in January. In February, Plate received a grant from The Puffin Foundation for ALMA, her upcoming stop-motion feature.
In addition to screening her films and exhibiting her art projects, Plate has been an active speaker on film festival panels, an invited filmmaker to animation industry conferences, a juror for film festivals, and an educator of stop-motion animation workshops at universities.
Originally from Barcelona, Spain, and raised in Germany, Catya Plate came to New York in 1987 through a Fullbright Scholarship for postgraduate fine arts studies at the School of Visual Arts. In 2009, she created Clothespin Freak Productions to bring her characters to life through award-winning handcrafted Stop-Motion films.
It all started when Plate created a beautifully intricate sculpture she called “Hive Mind.”
“It was one of my favorite pieces because it was so complex and contained dozens of two-headed creatures made from clear clothespins whom I lovingly called ‘Clothespin Freaks’ “, she recalls with a smile.
“They were decked out in tiny hand-sewn clothes and connected by their brains so they could work together as one Hive Mind.”
But when she realized that the creatures couldn’t move in their present form, she recalls thinking, “I desperately wanted to see them in motion; I must see them; I just had to see them!” and that is how she began creating in stop-motion.
Next up for the talented hyphenate creator is starting production on her first full-length animated stop-motion feature, ALMA.
Las Nogas will screen on Thursday, August 22nd, at 8 PM at the Theory Theater at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, 1945 Water Ave, Portland, 97214. Tickets: OMSI
“The Future of Stop-Motion Animation” panel will take place on Thursday, August 22nd, from 5:15 to 6:15 PM at The Kendall Planetarium at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, 1945 Water Ave, Portland, 97214. Tickets: OMSI
