Blue Sky Studios Animation Director Carlos Saldanha and characters from "Rio." Courtesy 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios. All rights reserved.

Blue Sky Studios animator Carlos Saldanha, who will be joining us for our Rio Festival Day on Saturday, October 15, began his filmmaking career in 1991 upon leaving his hometown of Rio de Janeiro to attend the MFA program at New York’s School of Visual Arts. He graduated with honors in 1993 after finishing two animated shorts, The Adventures of Korky, the Corkscrew (1992) and Time For Love (1993) which have been screened at animation festivals around the world. At SVA, Carlos met Chris Wedge, one of the founders of Blue Sky Studios, who invited him to join their growing team of artists.

One of the earliest films Saldanha worked on for Blue Sky Studios was the cult 1993 MTV short Joe’s Apartment, about a group of mischievous cockroaches who “sabotage” a young man’s plans for a romantic dinner date at home. Saldanha was the supervising animator of the group of singing and dancing roaches. View a clip here:

Since joining Blue Sky in 1993, Saldanha served as Director of Animation for the films A Simple Wish (1997), Fight Club (1999), and has had a hand in creating Blue Sky’s most critically acclaimed projects. With Wedge, Carlos co-directed Blue Sky’s first animated feature, the Oscar™ nominated Ice Age (2002). His following project, a short called Gone Nutty (2004) also garnered him an Oscar™ nomination.

As a Director, Saldanha’s continued success came with building the franchise of Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006) followed by Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009), the fourth highest grossing international film of all time.

Saldanha most recently directed the feature, Rio. This passion project is the one closest to his heart as it allowed him to share the beauty and excitement of his culture and home country.