Luís Soares was born in Lisbon 1981. He is currently directing his second short animation – Suspension – with support from ICA (Instituto do Cinema e Audiovisual/Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual).
He studied illustration and Cartoon/Comic Strip at ARCO and furthered his studies in Cinema of Animated Drawing and Volumes at CIEAM/Faculdade de Belas Artes de Lisboa/Faculty of Fine Arts University of Lisbon. He has completed several workshops on animation and has experimented with a variety of techniques and digital animation software, 2D, 3D animation and Volumes.
In 2012, he finished directing his first film – a short called “Outro Homem Qualquer/Any Other Man“, written by Cátia Salgueiro, and with support from ICA/RTP. This film has been shown at dozens of national and international festivals and won several awards: the António Gaio Prize for best National Film at the 2012 Cinanima Festival, which earned it automatic pre-selection for the Cartoon D’Or – A Pan-European Award for Animated Film; the Mikeldi de Oro award for best animated film at the 2013 ZINEBI Festival in Spain; the Novíssimos/Newcomers award at the IndieLisboa festival; the Revelation Award at the Festival Caminhos do Cinema Português and an Honourable Mention at Mumia – Mostra Udigrudi Mundial de Animação/Udigrudi World Animation Showcase, in Brasil.
He has been an animator since 2006, collaborating on various authored shorts, and the television series, publicity and promotional videos of several directors and producers.
He has been giving training sessions on animation since 2009 and has run workshops and taught courses on Digital 2D Animation, Animation of Characters and Volumes, Animation of Volumes for Visual Music, Animation of Light in Volumes, to name a few, at the Lisbon University Faculty of Fine Arts, coordinated by José Pedro Cavalheiro.
He is currently the trainer overseeing the 2D Animation course at ETIC/School of Innovation and Creative Technologies.