Chelo Loureiro

Chelo Loureiro, born way back in ’58 in Ferrol, A Coruña—Galicia’s own cinematic firecracker. She’s one of those quietly fierce forces in Spanish animation, always pushing the envelope, never settling for cookie-cutter stories. Her fingerprints are all over films like Valentina (2021), this beautifully weird, heartfelt tale about a girl with Down syndrome who just wants to be a trapeze artist. Sounds simple, but Chelo takes it to another level, blending fantasy and reality in a way that doesn’t talk down to anybody. Then there’s Unicorn Wars (2022)—oh man, that one’s not your average cartoon. It’s like Bambi meets Apocalypse Now, with pastel teddy bears and unicorns locked in some batshit brutal war. You’d think it’s for kids until you realize it’s a twisted anti-war fever dream dripping with dark humor and social commentary. Gutsy stuff, honestly. And don’t even get me started on Sultana’s Dream (2023). Loureiro dives into sci-fi, reimagining a world run by women, inspired by an early 20th-century feminist utopia. The art’s trippy, the themes are heavy, and she never loses her sense of playfulness. What’s wild about Chelo is she doesn’t just make “animation for animation’s sake.” Every project feels like her way of flipping the script on what stories can do—or who gets to tell them. She’s not exactly a household name outside Spain, but among animation geeks? Total legend.