COLA animation is an international production cooperative specializing in bringing to life high quality handmade film content. Together we are stronger, more experienced and capable of facing even the hardest creative challenges. Having worked for years in various projects of distinct animation techniques, we welcome you to contact us with new and original projects.
Ala Nunu
A Porto based Polish director and illustrator specialising in 2D animation. She has experience directing and art directing TV series, social campaigns, music videos, and short films. Her portfolio includes Universal Studios, Frank Sinatra Estate, The Atlantic, and OnBeing. Her short film AHEAD has been screened at festivals such as Animafest Zagreb and Bucheon International Animation Festival and her newest film “Telsche” co-directed with Sophie Colfer had its international premiere at Annecy, was screened at festivals like Tokyo Anime Awards and was awarded inter alia at the Cinanima festival for best Sound Design. As an animator, Nunu has recently worked on films such as the Oscar nominated Ice Merchants and Slow Light.
António Selas
A man of mystery, wrapped in an enigma who eats riddles with Vietnamese noodles for lunch.
Bruno Caetano
Portimão, 1979. Self-taught stop motion animator and builder, his professional career led him to participate in projects of various animation techniques, as well as in other areas of artistic interest. Works mostly as a director, producer and animator. Publishes comics at Comic Heart and A Seita.
Cristina Pîrvu
Cristina is a Romanian illustrator, animator and animation director currently based in Porto. She studied architecture, but decided to pursue animation after an internship in a VFX & animation studio. Since then, she has directed educational videos and worked as an animator on various other projects (music videos, author films and, more recently, animation series), collaborating with studios from Romania, Portugal and not only. As of 2023, she is a member of COLA Animation, an international production cooperative. In her personal work she often explores the female form, human emotion and alternative beauty, looking for inspiration in her own life and experiences.
Diogo Tavares
Best known as “Tavares”, Diogo is a Portuguese creative director, illustrator, and motion designer with over 10 years of experience in the advertising industry. He has lived in four different countries and worked across TV, digital, events, commercials, and social media agencies, collaborating with a wide range of clients, including serving as lead creative for Philips while at Ogilvy. A self-confessed workaholic, when he’s not working he’s usually geeking out over animes, games, comics, figurines, vinyls and TCG collections.
João Alves
João Alves has worked in animation since 2006, beginning as an animator on Revolta dos Pastéis de Nata and Ilha das Cores. In 2010, he directed Bats in the Belfry, which premiered at MOTELx and won Best Portuguese Horror Short Film. He later studied animation at the University of Texas at Austin and co-directed a trailer for The Extraordinary Adventures of Dog Mendonça and Pizzaboy II. A member of COLA since 2017, João has written the feature script Mindscape, co-directed the feature O Natal do Bruno Aleixo and is currently developing the feature film adaptation of O Baile (graphic novel).
João Gonzalez
João Gonzalez (Porto, 1996) is a Portuguese director, animator, illustrator and musician with classical training in piano. In 2022 he premiered his first funded film “Ice Merchants” in Cannes Film Festival, winning Best Short Film in Competition from the Semaine de La Critique Jury, which would later become the first Portuguese film to be nominated for an Oscar®, and the most awarded Portuguese film in history, with more than 150 international awards. João has a great interest in combining his musical background with his artistic practice in animated cinema, always playing the role of composer and occasional instrumentalist in all the films he makes.
Matei Monoranu
Matei, or Mino, is a Porto based Romanian 2D Animator and Illustrator. For the past 10 years he’s been animating and designing characters on various projects, from short ads to feature length films. Mostly 2D digital frame-by-frame animation and cutout, his work has a distinct wacky design, it’s colorful and humorous! Currently he’s developing his new animated series Cornucopia, a coming of age show about 3 young fruits playing neighbourhood games in an Eastern European town.
Niccolò Gioia
Niccolò Gioia (Voghera, 1998) is a director and animator whose passion for animation began on Youtube, where he gained millions of views with his stop-motion animations on his “Lumaken Studio” channel. After his studies, which included Cinema and Media Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Turin and the Aardman Academy, he works as Head of Animation, Story Artist, and Director at the Turin-based Robin Studio, often collaborating with COLA Animation and other production companies as a stop-motion animator on short films.
Sophie Colfer
Sophie is a Hong Kong-based animation filmmaker, curator, and member of COLA Animation. Having graduated from UAL with a First in Animation, she began her practice directing music videos with a portfolio of studios including Gearbox Records and Universal Studios. She wrote and co-directed her debut film, Telsche, with Ala Nunu, premiering at Annecy Festival in 2023 and earning selections and awards at multiple festivals around the world. She continues to write and direct upcoming films with COLA, while cultivating Hong Kong’s animation scene through SOOOP, a curated film event featuring screenings, installations, and panel discussions.
Vier Nev
Vier is a Portuguese multidisciplinary artist. Vier plays with light and shadow to create artworks that contain simultaneous imagery. While exploring the narrative potential of these images, they conceive interactive worlds about perception, transformation, language and queer history. Part of COLA Animation. They have studied at Escola Superior de Artes e Design and at London College of Communication, University of the Arts London. They have worked in film direction, animation and visual effects.