For the first time, the Spanish Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hosted a two-day series of presentations, masterclasses, and audience Q&As for World Animation Day.
There, I had the pleasure of interviewing Cartoon Saloon producer Nuria González Blanco for an hour-long masterclass about her near-decade of work at the company, how she got there, working abroad, and the joys and frustrations of a career in animation. A Spanish native, she also offered up advice to aspiring artists in the hometown crowd as well as those watching online. The interview was originally done in Spanish, but the Madrid Ministry of Culture has had it dubbed into English and made it free to watch on Youtube.
Blanco’s resume is impressive and includes the Oscar-nominated short Late Afternoon, Toronto Int’l Film Festival competition short Violet, Netflix series Puffin Rock, and she’s currently head writing and directing for Silly Sundays, a pre-school series she created and developed with Cartoon Saloon. But, what one can’t find on IMDB are the projects she’s worked on that never made it through production.