Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Beatrix Guedes. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Beatrix thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
Two projects have been marking my life in profoundly different ways: My 2 feature films, The Caterpillar and Crystalina.
The Caterpillar was originally written more than ten years ago, as a surrealist tragicomedy set in Brazil. It won a major fund at the time, but circumstances caused the production to stop, and the project went into a kind of deep sleep. Coming back to it a decade later – rewriting it completely in English, producing it as a UK/EU production , and re-imagining it with a British cast – became an act of resurrection. It feels like a film that grew with me. The script carries the emotional imprint of who I was then and who I am now, and bringing it back to life has been an extremely meaningful creative experience in my career. We are now packaging and set to shoot principal photography in Prague in 2026.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is Crystalina, a science-fiction feature based on years of research I conducted with scientists from NASA, the SETI Institute, and leading astrophysicists. The story features a romance between an astronomer and a neuroscientist unfolding as humanity receives a signal from Proxima Centauri – and every detail of the script is grounded in real science but taking it to a fantasy dimension. The project reached a new level when British director Peter Webber (Girl with a Pearl Earring; Hannibal Rising) came on board. It’s a film I carried for years – interviewing experts, digging into the science, and shaping a narrative that merges hard research with emotional depth.
Both projects are meaningful to me for different reasons: The Caterpillar represents artistic rebirth and personal evolution, while Crystalina represents the ambition to explore the edges of human understanding. They are two pillars of my journey, one rooted in my past, one reaching toward the future.
Beatrix, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am a film director and creative producer based in Los Angeles with projects in co-production between London, Stockholm and Prague. I am the founder of Moonlander Studios, a development and production company that has grown into a global indie hub for arthouse cinema, female-led narratives, and boundary-defying art.
After winning Best Script at the Berlin Indie Film Festival for my film “Rupert” – which was officially selected at indie festivals in Cannes, Venice, Amsterdam, Tokyo, and the UK – I am now entering the early stages of preproduction with The Caterpillar, a feature film written and directed by me. A surrealist dark comedy, Caterpillar is a UK–Sweden–Czech Republic co-production.
I am also packaging Crystalina, a USA–UK–Iceland sci-fi feature written and produced by me, and to be directed by Peter Webber (Girl with a Pearl Earring; Hannibal Rising). The project was a finalist at Tribeca Film Institute/Sloan Fund and listed among the Top Projects by Women Filmmakers in Hollywood.
My upcoming slate includes The Whispering Garden, an erotic period drama set in 1920s London, and Archipelago, a noir thriller TV series unfolding in the undercurrents of Stockholm – both UK-Sweden co-productions.
With Moonlander expanding into the UK and Europe, I’m building a network of bold, cross-border independent arthouse cinema – and unapologetically auteur.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
Yes. My creative journey is driven by a very specific mission: to tell stories that shift perception. I’m drawn to narratives that sit between the surreal and the intimate – stories that challenge reality, question identity, and invite the audience into emotional and psychological territories they don’t normally access.
Whether I’m working on a sci-fi rooted in real astrophysics or a surreal tragicomedy questioning one’s identities, my purpose is always the same: to expand the way people see themselves and the world. I come from fashion photography, from experimental filmmaking, from a long path of reinvention – and that fuels my commitment to creating images and stories that are bold, and unafraid to cross boundaries.
My mission is to build worlds that stay with people long after the film ends, and to open space for voices and visions that don’t fit into traditional boxes.
Have you ever had to pivot?
One of the biggest pivots in my life was the shift from being a well-established fashion photographer to becoming a moving-image director. At the time, I had a strong career in fashion – shooting campaigns, editorials, and creating highly stylized images where I was often not only the photographer, but also the production designer, art director, and sometimes even the stylist of my own shoots. My images already carried a surreal, playful, colorful world of their own, and the natural question became: what happens if these images start to move?
That transition began unexpectedly when a production company invited me to join them as their production designer. They had seen the artistic worlds I built in my photographs and wanted that same aesthetic sensibility – the surrealism, the bold colors, the handcrafted environments – translated into their films. From there, directing became an organic evolution. I started directing commercials and music videos, all infused with the same visual signature that shaped my photography.
That was the pivot: moving from stillness to motion, from framed moments to living worlds. Over time, the balance shifted completely. I went from being ‘a fashion photographer who experimented with film’ to a full-fledged director of high-end moving images. It wasn’t a sudden reinvention – it was a natural unfolding of what I had already been creating, one frame at a time.
Soon after, I opened my own production company in São Paulo, SELVA, and it grew quickly. We produced TV series and documentaries, and I took on the roles of both director and producer. This opened the door to international co-productions with the United States – a turning point that expanded my work beyond Brazil.
Eventually, the next natural pivot came: relocating from São Paulo to Los Angeles, where I’ve been based for the past eight years. Here, I founded the LA base of Moonlander Studios, which has since evolved into a global indie hub . And now, my journey is expanding once again – this time toward the UK and Europe, where Moonlander is growing into its next chapter – I am launching MOONLANDER STUDIOS UK in London this winter, as we start a co-production with Sweden, the feature film “The Caterpillar”
Every pivot in my life has been an expansion of the same core impulse: to build worlds, to create meaning, and to keep evolving creatively and globally.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.beatrixguedes.com
- Instagram: @beaguedes
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beaguedes/
Image Credits
Beatrix Portrait : Cyro Padilha