Catya Plate is a renowned independent filmmaker, animator, artist, producer, and writer, born in Barcelona, Spain, and raised in Germany. She moved to New York in 1987, where she pursued post-graduate studies at the School of Visual Arts through a Fulbright Scholarship.
In 2009, Plate founded Clothespin Freak Productions, a production company dedicated to bringing her unique characters to life through handcrafted stop-motion animation films. Her work has been recognized for its innovative approach to feminist socio-environmental themes, earning her the title of "Cultivating Innovative Feminist Socio-Environmental Stop-Motion Animation."
Plate has produced four award-winning short films, including "The Reading" (2010) and the ecological shorts trilogy "Hanging By A Thread" (2013),"Meeting MacGuffin" (2017),and "Las Nogas" (2023). Her projects have been featured in prominent publications such as The New York Times, Animation World Network, Animation Magazine, and Indiewire, among others.
Plate's films have screened worldwide at prestigious film festivals and museums, including the Flicker's Rhode Island International Film Festival, St. Louis International Film Festival, New Hampshire Film Festival, Cucalorus, Animac, Fullerton Art Museum, and The Brooklyn Museum. The World Premiere of "Las Nogas" took place in 2023 at the Oscar-qualifying Flicker's Rhode Island International Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prize for Best Environmental Film.
Currently, Plate is collaborating with award-winning producer and filmmaker Nathan Sellers on her first stop-motion feature, "Alma." In 2023, she received a NYC Women's Fund Grant from the NYC Mayor's Office of Media & Entertainment (MOME) and New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) for her stop-motion film "Las Nogas," which serves as a proof-of-concept short and first act for her upcoming feature "Alma."
In 2024, Plate was a Finalist with "Alma" for the Lynn Shelton "Of A Certain Age" Grant, sponsored by the Northwest Film Forum and Duplass Brothers Productions, and received an Honorable Mention from the Award Selection Committee, comprised of Jennifer Phang, Sarah Adina Smith, and Avril Z. Speaks.
Plate is 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.
