Filmmaker Carlos López Estrada Uplifts Indie Voices with Antigravity

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The views and opinions expressed by speakers and presenters in connection with Art Restart are their own, and not an endorsement by the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts and the UNC School of the Arts. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Carlos López Estrada definitely paid his dues – shooting scores of music videos and short pieces for a pittance while living at his mother’s for years after film school – before he had the chance to direct his first full-length feature film, “Blindspotting.” That well-reviewed film landed him his first studio feature when Disney hired him to co-direct the animated film “Raya and the Last Dragon.”

He is nonetheless the first to point out that a number of elements, including a film-school education and supportive parents, made his path to success easier than what awaited most of his cohort of up-and-coming filmmakers. He therefore focused on a new kind of creative endeavor: Antigravity Academy. 

Founded by Carlos in 2023, Antigravity is a hybrid business. It offers a range of educational initiatives designed to provide young, aspiring filmmakers — particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds — with the tools, mentorship and opportunities to develop their voices and tell their own stories. It also has a producing arm devoted to developing and bringing to life projects that would otherwise have difficulty finding funding. Antigravity’s first produced film, “Dìdi,” a glowingly reviewed coming-of-age story by Sean Wang, proved that Carlos’ mentoring and producing instincts are spot-on. “Dìdi” recently won two awards at the 2025 Film Independent Spirit Awards: Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay.

In this interview, Carlos describes how his experiences in Hollywood shaped Antigravity Academy’s mission and programs and explains why empowering new voices is not only helping to bring surprising stories to the screen but also making him a better artist.

Pier Carlo Talenti: I’d love to know how long ago the idea for Antigravity Academy first bubbled up in your head and then how you went about making it a reality.

Carlos López Estrada: It really was a direct result of my time at Disney.

Pier Carlo: Oh, it was? OK.

Carlos: I don’t want to sound like I’m just going to trash-talk a place that honestly meant a lot to me and taught me a lot and was very welcoming and warm towards me.

Pier Carlo: I have to say, I’m a big fan of the movie. It’s a gorgeous movie.

Carlos: Oh, thank you. I’m very proud of it. I think that we were able to really make it feel like a Disney movie in all the right ways but also open up conversations that are pretty complex and timely, so I’m very proud of it and I love the movie. 

But at the same time, it is a corporation. The boundaries of what you can and cannot do are very clearly defined, and you’re not really able to stray outside too much. I was supposed to work on another movie, but I left early just because I really missed the independence that comes with indie filmmaking and the ability to take control over the projects and the stories in a way that feels honest to who I am as a person. As much as I learned at Disney, I just thought that the compromises that it required for me to be there just didn’t make sense at the time for me. Also — I’m still young, but I was a little younger — I don’t have a family. It was easy for me to go back out and get lost in the indie world and the freelancer world again.

I understand how many people who work there have dependents and have mortgages and how it’s a luxury that I was able to do that, but I felt like I was going to feel a little bit artistically repressed if I stayed there. I left, and as soon as I left I was like, “OK, well I want to be able to create this organism that allows me to do all the things that I wasn’t able to do at Disney so that I can really ... .” When I was at Disney I was involved in a couple of committees, and I was one of the executive mentors for the diversity, equity and inclusion group, and it was really hard to get stuff done. There’s a lot of red tape and a lot of people that have to sign off on stuff. It’s very political, as most corporations are.

I just was excited to create this organism where we could really push for the initiatives and the ideas and the programs and the projects that spoke to me and to the team without having to spend years just trying to pitch this to people and get 1,000 approvals, just kind of the indie version of my Disney experience. That’s kind of how it started, and I’m really happy to say that a little over two years in its life we’ve really been able to do so much, so many educational and community-building programs. We’ve built this very healthy community of early-career filmmakers, and we’ve just been able to create some impact in the way that I feel like I really needed and I was hungry for at Disney. So that was the impetus of it.

Pier Carlo: How did you know what kind of form it would take? Because it is not a nonprofit. In other words, even though it has an educational component, you also have a producing arm. It feels like it’s an unusual organization in that sense. And who did you work with to come up with its current form?

Carlos: I would love to tell you that we had consultants and that there was an R&D period and that we took a very calculated approach, but it was the opposite of that. We did it independently. We did it based on gut feeling and just this very honest approach in terms of, “We want to start this thing. We have some ideas but also really want it to tell us what it wants to be.” I knew, for example, just because I have a lot of friends who work in the nonprofit world and I have seen the struggle that it is for them to make finances work and also for employees to be compensated properly … . Obviously, there’s incredible nonprofit work that’s being made, but it just felt a little bit like we would be putting most of our energy into making this a successful nonprofit rather than doing the things that we wanted to do. 

We also knew that we wanted to produce. That was at the heart of it. We want to make things, and these things are hopefully going to have a commercial life, and these things are hopefully going to make some money. That was at the center of it. We were thinking, “Should we do a for-profit arm, and should we do a nonprofit arm?” We were struggling to just get one of these things going, so we were just like, “Let’s just focus on the production company. We’re still going to do work that feels nonprofit-oriented in the sense that it’s community-building and educationally driven, but let’s see if we can make it make sense under the production company.” And I think that we have. It’s a young business so we’re still figuring out so, so much, but it’s blossomed in a pretty inspiring way.

I think the most important thing about the trajectory of the company is that honestly it’s felt like a business in the least amount and it’s felt a lot more like a community project, like an art project. I say that because we knew that we wanted to be a supportive home for emerging filmmakers; we knew that we wanted to be a little bit unconventional in terms of how we created these opportunities; and we knew that we wanted to feel a little bit indie and punk rock. But that’s about it.

Then everything else has just been a response from the community that we’ve been building, in terms of what has been most necessary. I’ll give you quick examples. We had this idea early on: “What if we host a free panel conversation with agents?” Because so many of my friends who don’t have representation have a lot of questions and there’s this lack of transparency in terms of what goes into getting signed by a manager or a talent agent. So we invited five talent agents to just talk a little bit, demystifying a little bit what that was like, and we made it free and open to anyone. We had 500 people show up, and not only did we have that many people show up, they were also so engaged in the conversation and asking questions and writing to us afterwards just being like, “I’ve never been a part of a conversation like this, and that just helped me in ways that you’ll never understand.” So then we were like, “OK, something’s happening here.”

Pier Carlo: What do you think was so exceptional about the conversation? Was it the atmosphere? Did people feel freer to be open and honest?

Carlos: I was hosting it. When we decided to have it, I was just like, “People know about agencies. You can easily just learn superficially how an agent or manager works, but let’s ask the hard questions. Let’s ask the real questions.” It was a very personal approach to the conversation where it was just like, “OK, so tell us the real, real process that goes behind signing someone,” and, “Hey, you show up to a film festival and you see all these films. What needs to happen in order for you to agree or decide to sign someone?” Or, “Hey, you get a cold email from some filmmaker that you’ve never heard before. What process do you go through to consider it? Or do you not consider it?”

It was those types of questions that I think really led to a very candid conversation, and people really responded to it. So we were like, “OK, there’s something here; let’s keep doing it,” and it’s been ongoing for two years. In these conversations we’ve been talking about, “What are the gaps between someone who wants to be making movies and someone who’s working professionally?” And it was like, “Well, there’s not enough mentorship. There’s not enough incubation of supporting first-time feature filmmakers or short films. Everyone asks you for a reel piece that really shows the potential of you as a filmmaker, and those cost a lot of money.” 

Over the last two years, I feel like we have been really taking that feedback to heart and trying to find solutions for those gaps. We created an incubator for first-time feature filmmakers where we help them develop and package their first films. We just launched a short-film studio a couple of months ago that is funded by Dolby, and we’re financing and producing four short films for early-career filmmakers. That’s been the dialogue that we’ve had, trying to really keep an eye and an ear out for the things that people are identifying as issues in being able to access this industry and then us trying our hardest to find potential solutions for them.

Pier Carlo: Are these incubators also where you yourself can find talent or projects that Antigravity might produce?

Carlos: Yeah, definitely. I think the most exciting thing about the company that makes me believe that it has a real future is that we found a way to do these efforts that probably traditionally would have fit better under a nonprofit model but we found a way to do it under the company. We are definitely helping and offering support to a lot of filmmakers, but there’s also an upside for us. It can be mutually beneficial and not in an exploitative, extractive way but in a way where it’s like, “There’s a lot of filmmakers that need this kind of help. We can offer that kind of help. And we’re also a production company, so you make our dreams come true by bringing in incredible stories that we can work on and we can simultaneously help you make your dreams come true.” And that’s kind of special.

I feel like we’ve tried to be really transparent about all of our practices. So with people who are signing up to the Screenwriting Camp, we’re very intentional about saying, “We would love to produce these projects. They may not happen. If you deepen the process of developing them with us and realize that we’re not the right fit, you still have the ultimate say to take these wherever you want.” But the best-case scenario is we’re offering support and then we can see these through.

Pier Carlo: I see. So contractually do you have right of first refusal on what gets developed through Antigravity?

Carlos: Yeah, essentially. It’s changing because we’re going into our second year and we’ve had some discoveries and learnings from the first year that we’re adjusting. For the first year essentially we said, “We’ll go through this development process with you. At the end of the process you get to decide if you want to keep us as a producer or not, but we definitely would love for you to consider us first. If you decide not to and you get to move on, there’s some credits and a couple of stipulations that we’ve shared from the beginning, just in terms of what type of involvement we can keep.” 

It’s ultimately the filmmakers' decision, and if they do decide that it’s not the right fit, then it’s not going to be a problem. Thankfully or luckily, I think we foster really good, healthy relationships with all the filmmakers that we supported.

Pier Carlo: How many filmmakers to date?

Carlos: We have six that went through the first year of the camp, and of those six, three have gotten signed at major agencies and management companies, and one of them earlier this year got into the screenwriter lab from the Sundance Institute. Honestly, it’s been less than a year since we launched the program, and I feel like it’s seen some pretty inspiring success. We’re hoping to be able to build the second and upcoming seasons in a stronger way.

Pier Carlo: Tell me about Antigravity producing “Dìdi.” How did that marriage come about?

Carlos: That was kind of, I think, the beginning of building this model for the incubator because even though that movie didn’t go through our Screenwriters Camp, it created the model that we’ve been following with the rest of the movies that we’re working on. That essentially just means that we came on early. There was a draft of the script. Sean, the writer-director, still did a lot of work on it, but you could tell very clearly from the draft that I read originally that there was something really special there. Then we worked with him for over a year, getting it in its best shape. 

Then we helped Sean produce from the ground up, so we were spearheading the financing efforts, the fundraising efforts. We didn’t finance it ourselves, but we helped with the fundraising. We put together the production crew. We produced it and then took it through release. It was a very intimate, hands-on relationship that we had with the filmmaker. 

Then when we were putting together the camp, we looked back at that relationship and that trajectory with the film and tried to find a way to make it a little more systematic.

Pier Carlo: You’ve developed six projects. Are you taking on any to develop as your next produced film?

Carlos: The commitment of the Screenwriters Camp ends when they have the draft and we put the package together, giving them something solid and concrete that they could take out to the market and try to get produced. Then we collectively make a decision with the filmmakers about whether it’s something that we can hands-on produce, depending on timelines and bandwidths and the belief that we can actually service the project. We’re just finishing the first cycle. Some of the six movies are at that stage, and some of them almost at that stage.

The first one that we called ready was “Thirstygirl,” which was this script written by Alexandra Qin. That’s the one that just went through the Sundance Labs, and that’s the one that we’re taking out with us attached as producers. So definitely that’s the intention. Just based on the fact that we’re a small company and working really hard, I don’t know that we’re going to be able to service every single one at that level or at least immediately. We may need to space them out a little bit more just for bandwidth reasons. But the intention is to hopefully be able to support all of them. Then if we do arrive at the point where we realize that it just doesn’t make sense for the film, then we’d be very happy to just see it hopefully flourish with someone else.

Pier Carlo: You mentioned that the lab itself is funded at least in part by Dolby. Where else is your funding coming from?

Carlos: Because we’re offering all these initiatives for free, the funding has been an interesting challenge to crack.

Pier Carlo: I bet. Because that’s the downside to not being a nonprofit. There are a lot of upsides, but the downside is that it’s a bit harder to raise money, right?

Carlos: Yeah, of course. People are a lot more inclined to give you money when they can see a tax benefit to it, so it’s been tricky, but thankfully I think we’ve found partners who have seen what we see in the programs and have been very willing to offer support in the form of money. Dolby was one of them. They are financing our short-film studio, and they’re putting up the money for the production of the films. And we’ve partnered up with them on the Satellite Sessions, the monthly panels that we do. They’ve just become really invaluable partners, and we’re very indebted to them for putting their money where their mouth is.

The Screenwriters Camp in the first two years was financed by one of our “Dìdi” financiers, who also, I think, was very inspired by the work that we were doing and decided that she wanted to personally allow us to make those projects. We have also since partnered up with a nonprofit to work as our fiscal sponsor, which allows us to be able to service their nonprofit and also be able to take money and be able to offer tax credit to people.

Pier Carlo: For the strictly educational component of the company.

Carlos: Exactly, for the educational component. It’s still early. We’re still figuring out all of these systems. I will say that we didn’t even think that we would get to this point because we have a handful of what we think are successful programs that have been financed by other people and that have serviced a lot of filmmakers and that we’re offering for free. So the fact that we’ve made it this far, I think that it’s very encouraging and we believe that —

Pier Carlo: In just two years. That’s incredible.

Carlos: Yeah, it’s still going to take a lot of work, but we believe that these efforts are going to be able to get expanded and hopefully we can continue to serve more filmmakers in the future.

Pier Carlo: You mentioned something earlier about how you wouldn’t want an emerging filmmaker to follow your career path. I always assumed that one way to get your reel was to make music videos, so I’m curious how you counsel emerging filmmakers to create their reel. Nowadays, entire films are shot on iPhones. Is your recommendation to do it quick and cheap or to take the time to put together the quality team to make the project you want?

Carlos: I’m not knocking your question, but I think it’s really hard to give general advice because I feel like it really depends so much on each filmmaker and what their financial situation is and resources that they may have in their communities. We’re really passionate and pushing this idea of community-driven filmmaking and available-resource-driven filmmaking because I think that we’ve been taught and we’ve been trained to appreciate the films that look a certain way and have a certain type of polish and that feel like films that you would see up on the screen, which are expensive. Making movies is a very inaccessible art form and it requires so much equipment and so many resources and so many people.

You hear all these stories of people going into debt and having to sell all of their belongings and really struggling to get a short film made. Also there’s the reality that it takes a lot of work and movies and hours for you to get good at the thing that you want to do. People put all of the resources — and then some — into making their first short, and then they make it and it may not immediately get the traction that they want, and then they realize, “Oh, I should probably make another five of these so that I can really get some experience.” But it’s like, “What, does that mean you have to go through the same grueling process five times?” 

Pier Carlo: Yeah, how many calling cards do you need?

Carlos: Yeah, it’s a pretty unsustainable way of thinking. So we have this initiative that we haven’t launched yet but I’m pretty excited about that is encouraging people to make movies with resources that are easily available in their communities around them, so shooting on phones and not relying on film lighting and not relying on spending money on locations, like trying to come up with stories that you can shoot in your home or in public spaces or in places that you have access to. 

Pier Carlo: You talked about the polish of films that we’re accustomed to seeing. Do the gatekeepers appreciate this kind of rough-and-tumble filmmaking?

Carlos: I definitely think that there needs to be a reframing not only of how we’re making movies but also the types of movies that we’re giving our attention to. Of course, there’s lots of beautiful things to appreciate about movies that cost millions and millions of dollars and whose level of craftsmanship is so elevated and not to be critical of those. But I also feel like there are so many movies that have been shot on phones, that have been shot on very, very, very minimal budgets, that have used non-professional actors —

Pier Carlo: Yeah, I remember the first Sean Baker film I saw was “Tangerine,” which just blew my mind.

Carlos: “Tangerine” is one of the most beautiful things ever made. They had a budget, but that was shot on phones and that was shot around L.A. in the most independent of ways. I think that bringing attention to that type of indie filmmaking spirit and giving our attention to that type of movie hopefully can really lead to a shifting perspective where all of a sudden people are being ... . Just like someone can make a song in their bedroom right now and then all of a sudden be ready to go on world tours. And most art forms require very little in order for you to create. I think that we have all the tools, and the technology exists so that filmmaking can be like the most inexpensive that it has ever been. I just feel like with a little bit of effort, we can just get people really excited about this type of filmmaking, and I really think that it can have a major impact in our industry.

Pier Carlo: Do you still have time for your own filmmaking or are you mostly producing now?

Carlos: I have time for my own filmmaking. Yeah, I’m prepping my next movie that we’ll shoot this summer. It’s definitely been a challenge to be able to service both worlds, the directing and the producing. There was a question that was brought up earlier when we were starting the companies: “Are you going to be sacrificing your own work and are you sure you’re going to want to give your energy to helping other people make their stuff?” I will say that, at least for the time being, it’s been a very mutually beneficial relationship where I feel like the producing work that I’ve done has really allowed me to become a better filmmaker myself.

Pier Carlo: How so?

Carlos: Just because I’m reading so many scripts, I am offering support, development support. I was on set for “Dìdi.” Sean is a brilliant filmmaker, and he goes about things in ways that I don’t. I have my own way of directing and troubleshooting and being creative, and being next to him just really opened up my eyes to so many different options in terms of how to make a movie. And he’s very good with improvisation and he’s a very good writer, and I feel like being so close to that process made me a better writer. 

So now after two years of working on this company, I’m going off to make my next movie, and I definitely feel like there’s been a significant improvement in my filmmaking and my critical and my writing skills.

Pier Carlo: Did you write the script as well?

Carlos: I did, with my writing partner, but I definitely feel like I’ve unlocked a new level that I don’t think I would have been able to unlock had I not had these producing experiences. Or maybe it would have taken me way, way longer. It’s trying on my schedule and I’m definitely going to bed really late at night every day, but I’m young. I like it. I have the energy. I still don’t have family, so my friends are cool with me just sometimes being present and sometimes. It makes sense.

I don’t know how sustainable it is for the rest of my life, but for now it makes sense and I’m learning a lot. I think the most important thing is that I’m really enjoying it. We’re doing all these events and these in-person gatherings that have been really motivating, because I think people from the community that we’ve built show up and thank us for the work that we’re doing and give us really specific examples of how the work that we’ve done has made their journey a little bit less impossible. That feels very rewarding, and I’m glad to be doing it. 

You’ll see my next movie, and I think you’ll hopefully feel how all the work that we’ve done has really made its way onto the creativity. So I’m happy about it.