Local animator speaks on his Oscar-nominated film

BARRINGTON, R.I. (WLNE) — Daniel Sousa was born in Cape Verde, raised in Portugal, and moved to Taunton at age 12. But through those different cultures, his favorite language has been art.

“It was just non-stop drawing,” he said. “And that was just the way that I saw the world and communicated with others.”

That passion brought Sousa to study at the Rhode Island School of Design.

“I was exposed to so many different ways of making art,” he said. “It kind of opened my mind to different possibilities.”

And when the possibility of animating short films became his reality, there were a few surprises.

“I didn’t expect it to be as much work as it actually was,” Sousa said. “A lot of focus, a lot of time. And a lot of courage to see that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”

That light was showing his work at Oscar–qualifying film festivals, like the Rhode Island International Film Festival.

“It’s very rewarding when you finally get something that you can show to an audience,” Sousa said. “And it has sound, and you can darken a room, put it up on a big screen, and you can create a whole world.”

Like the world he created for his film “Feral,” about a young boy found in the wild.

In 2013 it led to a reward he didn’t expect – an Oscar nomination.

“It was like a surreal dream, because you’re surrounded by all these big stars,” Sousa said. “They’re all there. It’s like a walking wax museum.”

Though he didn’t win, the exposure helped lead to new projects, including steady commercial animation work that continues today.

Sousa wants to keep telling stories – Oscars or not.

“That’s just icing on the top,” he said. “It’s very unlikely that you hit that twice. I was very lucky to have gone through that ride, but I don’t expect it to happen again. If it does, I’ll be very grateful and honored to do that. But the work comes first, and everything that you do is in the service of telling the story.”

©WLNE-TV/ABC 6 2020