Pilar Garcia-Fernandezsesma

Pilar Garcia-Fernandezsesma was born to Spanish immigrants in New York City. During her high school years, she attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School for the Arts in Manhattan as part of their visual arts department, and later went on to attend the Rhode Island School of Design to earn her BFA in Film/Animation/Video. She currently resides in Brooklyn.

Pilar makes a variety of animation and illustration work including independent animated films, commissioned animations, music videos, poster and sticker designs, gifs, and illustrations. Her work varies in medium from digital to traditional, typically using an interplay of the two to give a mixed-media feel to her pieces. Common themes she works with include the use of visual symbolism, violence, human interaction, our connection to the natural world, and animals and femininity in relation to familial dynamics. Pilar likes to categorize much of her independent work under what she calls the 'beautifully disturbing', as she often uses the idea of the beautiful and pristine to depict otherwise gruesome and violent topics. Much of her work falls under the genre of Folk Horror, with an emphasis on rural settings and the isolation and beauty within them.

Her main goal as a filmmaker is to force us to ask questions about how we interact with one another, and above all she wants her viewers to be able to relate to the characters on screen, both real and fictional.

Pilar is a Student Academy Award Gold medalist, and a 2023 Jerome Hill Production Grant and 2020 Glas Animation Grant recipient. Her films have been shown in Oscar-qualifying festivals such as Annecy, Slamdance, Cinanima, Rhode Island International Film Festival, Animafest Zagreb, Animest, the Norwegian Short Film Festival, and the Brooklyn Film Festival. She has worked on projects that have gone on to premiere at Tribeca, win Emmys, and be shown at other prominent festivals like SXSW and the Ottawa International Animation Festival.

She has done work for Adult Swim, PBS Frontline, MTV, Giphy, Buck, Ado Ato, Cartuna, and Mighty Oak, among other companies.

Pilar is currently an Adjunct Professor at the School of Visual Arts BFA Animation program.

Filmography

"Colony" 2022, 13:22

"Ciervo" 2020, 10:15

"By Day's End" 2020, 3:20

“Margarita La Del Rio” 2019, 4:39

Commissioned

"Sorry Not Sorry" 2023, 3:18 (Demi Lovato Music video for MTV VMAs)

"Midnight Ash" 2022, 1:49 (Adult Swim OTA)

"Inner Wound Real" 2022, 15:00 (Raychelle Segment)

"BRB I'm on my Break 01" 2021, 2:49 (Adult Swim Smalls)