NYWIFT Blog

By Nicolette Page

Welcome to NYWIFT, Esther Casas Roura!

Esther is an award-winning filmmaker known for blending metaphorical storytelling with animation. Originally from Barcelona, Spain, she began her career as a molecular biologist before moving to New York and transitioning into filmmaking, focusing on animation while working across both commercial and narrative projects.

She later founded Claymaniak Studios (now ECR Films) to create emotionally resonant films across stop-motion, traditional animation, and motion graphics.

Her animated shorts—Check Date: An Underdog Love Story, Creamen, and FLOCKY—have screened internationally at over 150 film festivals. FLOCKY was recently shortlisted for the Goya Awards in Spain, has received 18 international awards, and has gained international recognition for its social impact. 

Esther is currently developing her fourth short, The Melody Within, and her first animated feature, TAO.

In our interview, Esther spoke about her creation of her studio and the making of her films. 

NYWIFT Member Esther Casas Roura

Welcome to NYWIFT! How did you hear about us?

I first learned about NYWIFT while attending industry panels and animation events in New York. Over the years, I saw how the organization champions women filmmakers and fosters meaningful community support, and every time I encountered members or alumni of NYWIFT, their achievements and collaborative energy made me want to be part of this vibrant network.

NYWIFT Member Esther Casas Roura

Your work is known for blending metaphorical storytelling with animation. When did you first realize metaphor was central to how you tell stories?

Metaphor became central to my storytelling early in my animation journey, when I realized that animation allows ideas to be felt as much as seen. It offers a natural way to explore complex emotions and themes that are difficult to express literally.

What drew me in was the tension between the beauty of the medium and the emotional and conceptual depth it can carry. Animation lives between the real and the imagined, and metaphor becomes the bridge between those two worlds. It invites audiences to engage with a story through its visual pleasure and emotional layers—sometimes at the same time, sometimes gradually—allowing meaning to surface in ways that stay with them long after the film ends.

Animation is simply how my mind works: when I think of stories, I see them as animated worlds. It’s the most powerful language I’ve found for telling the stories I want to tell.

NYWIFT Member Esther Casas Roura

What early influences shaped your visual language?

My visual language was shaped early on by a mix of observation, animation, and science. As a child, I watched a great deal of animation—from Disney films and Heidi to Japanese cartoons—but it was stop-motion that truly stayed with me. Series like Pingu and Wallace & Gromit left a deep impression, long before I understood technique.

I was drawn to how animation could communicate emotion, humor, and even loneliness purely through movement and timing. That early exposure helped me understand animation as a language, not just a medium.

My attraction to animation began with stop-motion, obsessing with Laika’s films, and later expanded in adulthood to a deeper appreciation of 2D animation, from large studios like Walt Disney to more contemporary approaches across the medium. Filmmakers like Hayao Miyazaki resonate with me for the sense of wonder in the worlds they create, though my own work is shaped more broadly by animation that makes emotion tangible through image, rhythm, and gesture.

My scientific background further trained me to notice systems, patterns, and hidden structures—an influence that continues to inform how I build worlds and tell stories through animation.

NYWIFT Member Esther Casas Roura

Was animation always your chosen medium, or did it emerge as the best way to express your ideas?

Animation wasn’t always my chosen medium; I arrived at it after exploring many forms of art. As a child, I drew constantly, experimenting with charcoal, oil paint, pastels, and acrylics, while also sculpting figures in clay. At one point, I was even selling my clay figures and built a small website to showcase them.

One day, I began moving one of those figures and felt the excitement of giving it life. That moment led me to write a story, buy a camera, build a set for my characters, and eventually make my first film—all while still working in a cancer research lab.

I realized that animation gave me the freedom to construct worlds where internal experiences and emotional journeys could be externalized visually. It became the most powerful way for me to express ideas that live beyond the literal, where tone, rhythm, color, and movement carry meaning as strongly as words. Working in the lab, I was missing that form of expression—I wanted to feel more alive. Animation gave me that feeling.

What inspired you to found Claymaniak Studios?

I founded Claymaniak Studios as a space to tell meaningful stories and collaborate closely with passionate creatives on projects that sit at the intersection of craft and emotion. I wanted an environment where ideas could grow organically—from early concept to finished film—guided by curiosity, experimentation, and precision.

As my work evolved, Claymaniak grew into ECR Films, reflecting a broader vision and an international focus. ECR Films embodies my belief in the transformative power of animation to engage audiences both intellectually and emotionally, and my commitment to creating stories that resonate across cultures and borders.

NYWIFT Member Esther Casas Roura

What excites you most about where animation is headed right now?

What excites me most is the way animation continues to expand beyond genre and age boundaries — embracing immersive formats, narrative hybridity, and intersections with technology and performance.

There’s more space than ever for diverse voices, new structures of storytelling, and emotionally rich work that resonates worldwide. The animation community is becoming more inclusive and adventurous, and that creative momentum is energizing.

In particular, the integration of AI into animation opens unprecedented creative possibilities. It’s not a distant future—it’s the present—and adapting to it allows artists to push their work further, not replace it. I believe that story, intent, and emotional truth matter more than ever. AI doesn’t carry lived experience; we do.

As a director, I bring my own history, emotions, and perspective into the work, and I see AI as a tool to elevate those qualities—enhancing both the emotional depth and visual expression of the stories I want to tell. That balance between technology and human experience is what truly excites me now.

What are you working on next?

The Melody Within, a short animated film that explores emotional resilience through music using immersive 3D spaces and expressive characters, and TAO, my first animated feature, which blends science and mythology within richly constructed 3D worlds.

While visually ambitious, both projects are driven by emotional truth—designed not just to be seen but deeply felt—inviting audiences into stories that can move them, resonate long after viewing, and reveal the human side of both inner life and science.

NYWIFT Member Esther Casas Roura

Connect with  Esther Casas Roura on Instagram at @claymaniak.

(All photos courtesy of Esther Casas Roura)