The winners will be announced on May 11th in Tenerife’s city of La Laguna
A total of 25 works from seven countries will compete in the seventh edition of the Ibero-American Animation Quirino Awards, created to promote, and enhance the value of animation from the Ibero-American region. Spain tops the list of countries with the most entries (16), followed by Brazil (7) and Chile (3). Argentina, Mexico, and Portugal are present with two nominations each, while Colombia has one nomination. The announcement of the finalists in the 10 categories of the Awards was made today, within the framework of the 27th Malaga Film Festival. The Quirino Awards have the main sponsorship of the Tenerife Council through Turismo de Tenerife.
Spain’s “Robot Dreams” by Pablo Berger – also competing for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film – and the Brazilian short “Lulina e a Lua” by Marcus Vinicius Vasconcelos and Alois Di Leo are the works with the most nominations, three each.
A jury made up of directors José Miguel Ribeiro (Portugal), Marcela Rincón (Colombia) and Wesley Louis (United Kingdom), along with Zane Valeniece (Head of Acquisitions for the Latvian public television, LTV) and Emmanuèle Petry (co-founder and producer at Dandelooo, France), will be in charge of selecting the winners, which will be announced on May 11th at the Leal Theater in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, on the island of Tenerife.
The presentation of the finalists took place as part of the activities of the Animation HUB of Spanish Screenings in MAFIZ – Industry Area at the Malaga Festival (at the International University of Andalusia, former Institute of Port Studies of Malaga) and was attended by Lope Afonso, Vice President of the Tenerife Council and Secretary of Tourism, External Action and International Relations, and Carmen Jordán, Director of Fashion, Habitat and Cultural Industries of ICEX; Camilo Vázquez, Deputy Director General of Promotion and International Relations of the ICAA; Annabelle Aramburu, Coordinator of MAFIZ – Industry Area at the Malaga Festival, and Bea Bartolomé, Director of the Quirino Awards.
Finalists by category
Spanish animation has the most nominations in the Best Feature Film category with three out of four nominations. Aimed at children, “Hanna and the Monsters” is the first feature film by Galician director Lorena Ares, an adventure film starring Hanna, an adorable little girl who loves monsters. Another nominee is Isabel Herguera, also a debutant, with “Sultana’s Dream,” a film inspired by the feminist science fiction story of the same name written in 1905, which became the first European animated film to compete in the Official Selection of the San Sebastian Festival. Completing the Spanish participation in this category is “Robot Dreams,” the fourth feature film by Bilbao-born Pablo Berger and his first animation work. An adaptation of the 2007 graphic novel of the same name by illustrator Sara Varon, the film has already won two Goyas and an Annie and is a finalist for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Argentina’s “The Paradise” by Fernando Sirianni and Federico Moreno Breser, a film noir based on true events, is the fourth nominee for Best Feature Film.
The nominations in the Best Series category – all developed in 2D animation – are shared between Spain and Brazil. After winning in the same category with “Jasmine & Jambo,” Catalan director Sílvia Cortés returns with the second season of this musical series aimed at preschoolers. “Poor Devil”, an animated series for adults created by Joaquín Reyes, Miguel Esteban, and Ernesto Sevilla, and “Sex Symbols”, a series that addresses the sex and emotional education of children and adolescents directed by Paloma Mora Iñesta and Alex Cervantes, complete the Spanish nominations. Along with them, two Brazilian series compete for the award in this category: “The Wild Hotel of Ana Flor” by Andrés Lieban and Alessandro Monnerat, a pair that competed in 2021 in this same section with “Conta conmigo”, and “The Nutty Boy’ – Season 2,” an adaptation of the well-known cartoon by Brazilian cartoonist Ziraldo directed by Michele Massagli and Beto Gomez.
For the first time since their creation, the Quirino Awards achieved gender parity in their two main categories: Feature Film and Animated Series.
Marcus Vinicius Vasconcelos and Alois Di Leo from Brazil will compete for the Best Short Film award with their piece “Lulina and the Moon” selected in competition at the prestigious Clermont-Ferrand festival. Di Leo returns to the Quirino Awards after winning two prizes in 2021 with his short “Caminho dos Gigantes.” From Portugal comes “Almost Forgotten” by Miguel Lima and Dimitrije Mihajlovic, which, through different animation techniques, tells the story of a woman who wanders through the memories of her childhood. Completing the list of finalists is “To Bird or Not to Bird,” in which Galician illustrator, comic author and director Martín Romero offers a critical and kaleidoscopic view of today’s world through the experiences of birds.
In the newly created Best Animation Music Video category, three works are competing that confirm the ability of Ibero-American animation to transcend its own borders. “All the Best” is a music video by Pablo Roldán for Siamés, an Argentine electropop band; “It’s Up to the Future” is a song by poet and musician Reynaldo Bessa animated by Brazilian illustrator and animator Nat Grego. Finally, “I Inside the Old I Dying” by Chilean directors Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña (“La Casa Lobo”, “Los Huesos”) brings to life a song from the latest album by English artist PJ Harvey.
In addition to the above-mentioned, awards will also be given in the categories of Best Animation School Short Film, Best Commissioned Animation, Best Video Game Animation, and in three technical categories: Best Visual Development, Best Animation Design, and Best Sound Design and Original Music.
The complete list of finalists can be seen here.
About the Quirino Awards
The Awards were named after Quirino Cristiani, creator of the first animated feature film in history, an Argentine production titled “El Apóstol” (1917) in which 58,000 drawings made by hand and shot in 35 mm were used.
The Quirino Awards have the main sponsorship of the Tenerife Council through Turismo de Tenerife and the Tenerife Film Commission; the sponsorship of the City Council of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, ICEX Spain Export and Investment and ICAA; the collaboration of CAACI, the Ibermedia Program, Acción Cultural Española through the Program for Internationalization of Spanish Culture (PICE), OEI, RTVE, UHY Fay & Co, La Liga de la Animación Iberoamericana (The Ibero-American Animation League), Retina Latina, Filmin, Multicines Tenerife, Paraninfo ULL, the Malaga Film Festival and Culturamanía; and the support of DIBOOS, SAVE, Pixelatl, Animation! Ventana Sur, Weird Market, La Mesta, Pantalla, Canary Islands Audiovisual Cluster, and the Annecy Festival; as well as the support of the following associations: APA – Association of Animation Production Companies of Córdoba Argentina; Animar Cluster – Argentine Cluster of Animation & VFX; ABCA – Brazilian Association of Animation Cinema; Animachi Chile; Bolivian Animators Network; GEMA Colombia – Animation Business Group; Animation Costa Rica; Ecuadorian Animators Guild; ACDMX – Association of Digital Creatives of Mexico; Paraguay Animation; Peru Animation; and Casa da Animação of Portugal.
