Born in Barcelona, Spain, and raised in Germany, Catya Plate is an award-winning artist, writer, filmmaker, and producer who came to New York in 1987 through a Fulbright Scholarship for post-graduate studies at the School of Visual Arts.
In 2009 she created Clothespin Freak Productions to bring her characters to life through award-winning stop-motion animated films. Known for “Cultivating Innovative Feminist Socio-Environmental Stop-Motion Animation”, Catya has been reviewed and featured in The New York Times, Animation World Network, and Animation Magazine, among others.
Her films screened and won awards at renowned film festivals like Oscar-qualifying Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival and New Hampshire Film Festival. In 2023 she received a prestigious NYC Women’s Fund Grant by NYFA/MOME for Las Nogas – the final short in the ecological trilogy. In 2024 she received a Puffin Foundation Grant for Alma, her animated feature currently in pre-production.
In 2024, Catya was a Finalist for the Lynn Shelton “Of A Certain Age” Grant with Alma and was singled out for an Honorable Mention by the jury.
In addition to screening her films and exhibiting her art projects, she’s 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.
Catya lives in Brooklyn with her husband Todd, and dog Clover.
