We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Anna Carolina Bastos a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Anna Carolina, so happy you were able to devote some time to sharing your thoughts and wisdom with our community. So, we’ve always admired how you have seemingly never let nay-sayers or haters keep you down. Can you talk to us about how to persist despite the negative energy that so often is thrown at folks trying to do something special with their lives?
I have always been an extremely determined person. I always knew that I wanted to make movies and I tried to make it happen multiple times before I became a filmmaker. Of course I found people who tried to discourage me and I was definitely affected by it, but I always found ways to get back up and running towards my dream.
When I thought about pursuing my masters abroad, I was in my last year of film school. I asked one of my favorite professors to be one of the people who would write my letters of recommendation for the application process. He sent a short reply, asking me to remind him of my work. I thought that question was a little disheartening because I had taken two classes with him not long before that and he always loved what I had created. I sent him my work anyways. On a Sunday morning, around 7:32am, he sent a long email about how I would not qualify for a masters program abroad for my work didn’t have the quality required to be accepted in one. I spent that Sunday crying my eyes out. My parents were mad. My brother was livid. My close friends from film school were shocked that he had said those things to me. Everybody knew about my dream and how this professor could help me achieve it. It’s hard to read those word from someone you admire and look up to. I allowed myself to have that Sunday to feel sad. The next day I got back up and spoke to another professor that I really liked about the letter. He ended up being my thesis advisor and writing a really cool and nice letter for me. I got accepted in a masters program and graduated in Spring 2025.
Determination can take you far but you also need to believe in yourself. I believe in myself and I only listen to the people who also believe in me. Life is already hard enough to have people who want to see you down around you. Focus on yourself and on what you want to do, be positive about it and go make it happen. That’s how I make things happen for me.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I’m Anna Carolina Bastos, a film composer, sound editor, audio engineer and production sound mixer from Brazil. I do a little bit of everything music and sound related. I moved to Brooklyn, NY for a masters program in media scoring after graduating from film school in Brazil, in 2022.
Music came to me as a hobby. My parents raised my brother and I with music filling up the rooms in our house. I became a singer-songwriter and acoustic guitar player. My brother became a drummer. During film school, my friends started asking me to create music for the movies we were making. That’s how I ended up becoming a film composer. At the time I was already dabbling in sound when I was in film school, but at my graduate school we had sound equipment and recording studios, so I got to practice and learn way more, being able to get cool gigs because of it.
What excites me most about my work is that I get to work on these amazing projects at different stages of their making, and meet and work with so many excellent people.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Resilience, adaptability and integrity. Have patience with your journey. Good things really take time to happen, so there’s no need to rush or to go over other people trying to make it happen for themselves. And always be open to adapt to a new path, as long as the goal stays the same.
What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
The most impactful thing my parents did for me was investing in me. Money and time. I started learning English at a very young age and that made life fairly easy for me professionally. Then came the extracurricular activities, such as ballet, tap dancing, drawing lessons, guitar and singing lessons… Every little cent brought me to where I am today and for that I’ll be grateful forever.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/acsbbx/#
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/acsbbx/
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/acsbbx
Image Credits
Kai-Hsiang Yang, Patricia Colmenero, Anna Carolina Bastos, Barbara Facioli, D.D. Jackson, Marion Schoevaert
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
