Animated Carlos

This Goya Award nominee whose latest work The Puppeteer won the best International short film award at GSFF in New Jersey in 2018 is a dreamer with a digital persona. Argentine director Carlos Lascano brings alive stories that are almost ethereal and dream-like. Known for his vivid storytelling abilities, his most famous short films have over 20 million views on the Internet, and awards worldwide. The Argentinian who decided to make Spain his home has a repertoire that includes commercials and narratives  with Carlos’ signature animation expertise shining with creative bursts. Be it Lila, with its charming characters, and its style of live action combined with animation or his commercial inspired by Pink Floyd’s The Wall.

In 2011, Carlos was chosen by Amnesty International to write, co-produce and direct the official spot for their 50th anniversary, where he worked alongside Oscar winner Hans Zimmer and nominated Lorne Balfe. Sharing from that experience, he recalls, “Working with Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balf was an amazing experience. Suddenly, being in front of a person I admire was the most amazing feeling. He is my favourite composer. To be on Skype on my computer and know that I could just touch that button and I could be talking to them was just amazing. The fact that musicians that I admire, like Roger Waters, Bono from U2 and Madonna were sharing my work in their concerts was incredible. If you see the commercial of Amnesty International, you will see that most of them are stories that are happening on a wall. The main idea for that comes from Pink Floyd’s The Wall. So having the creator of what was my inspiration, sharing my work was amazing. I remember, I was shaking the whole day. I was so happy that I couldn’t believe that it was happening. It was incredible.” Clearly a memory that he treasures, Lascano’s films have an inherent uniqueness. He’s inspired by what he sees around, “I try to create characters that one can empathise with. I try to put myself in the audience’s shoes. When I create characters, I make them super strong, with a strong desire. We call it a ‘dramatical need.’ Then I destroy the character and put it to a test. This is how I try to create empathy.”

Growing up in Argentina, and calling Spain his home at 29 years of age, was a game-changing experience that saw the easy going creative spirit get out of his my comfort zone, and blossom. “When you confront your fears, challenges, and you know that this is a point of no return, that you are growing up, it affects your work as an artist and in that moment you create more complex stories. Today, I live half in Argentina and half in Spain, and the rest of Europe,” says Lascano. “The Puppeteer is my new film. It is a dark story; a dark romance. It has been my most challenging project. And on Lila,  I really hope that Lila will motivate people to keep creating short stories.”

The Goya Awards nomination The Legend of The Scarecrow was made in three months with a beautiful team in Madrid. While the nomination caught Carlos by surprise, it made the team super happy, and he looks back, “Wow, so (now) we need to put on a tie and go and pretend that we are great directors?” he laughs.

Animation is his forte… and its apparent when you take a look at his body of work. “The 2012 Euro Cup commercial was challenging but beautiful. It was one of the first times I was involved in a huge production. I moved to United States to work on it, and it was a turning point in my career. It is a beautiful commercial. Yet, if you were to ask me which one I like the most, I would say the one for Amnesty International as I had total freedom to create a script from scratch because of the message - freedom.”

Talk veers towards his pre-selection to the Academy Awards and the innumerable awards he cherishes, and Lascano laughs, “I have been to more than 590 festivals, mostly with Lila and then the pre-selection for the Oscars for the Shadow of Blue and Legend of the Scarecrow. There have been a lot of awards. To be completely honest, I don’t care about festivals. I care about what people tell me after they watch the films. It’s about connecting with people, and that is the most beautiful award of all.”

The workaholic has no time for holidays but seems to have another talent, he is a whiz in the kitchen. “I love to cook and people say that I am a very good cook. Every time there is a party, I am the one cooking,” says the director who loves to travel and meet new people. He also does a bit of sketching as well.

Next up is a project for a long feature film related to Lila, which is extremely close to his heart. “I also have other projects as well (for TV), it’s great as I am super interested in the format of TV series. I am also working on a graphic novel that I will hopefully release soon.”

 In India as a part of Select Short Stories, a short film festival that showcased critically-acclaimed short films from across the world that were screened every weeknight, Carlos’ Lila, a silent film was also shown, he was in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi to share from his repertoire. He says, “The presentation was great. I didn’t know that the people were so in love with my films, mostly with Lila and that was a big surprise and that motivated me to have a dream to do something here. What I could see is that people here are experts in how you work with images — the use of images is very strong and I find that particularly interesting. That has inspired me a lot for my future works.”