SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Feb. 16 (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Quirino Ibero-American Animation Awards have announced the 39 works from 12 countries that aspire to be finalists in the nine categories of these awards created in 2018 to promote talent and the Ibero-American animation industry, and whose fifth edition will be held from 12 to May 14 in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, on the island of Tenerife.
Animation from Spain and Brazil confirm their leadership in the region with 14 and 11 nominated works, respectively. They are followed by Mexico, with nine, and Argentina and Chile, with eight each. The list also includes six works from Peru, five from Colombia, five from Uruguay and three from Portugal, while Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela are present with one candidacy each.
The works with the highest number of nominations, four each, are the Chilean short film 2022 Oscar finalist ‘Bestia’, the Brazilian feature film ‘Bob Cuspe-Nós Não Gostamos de Gente’, the Uruguayan series ‘Dos Pajaritos’ and the Mexican short ‘Uncle’.
Many of the selected works have passed through international festivals such as Annecy, Sitges, Ottawa and Seville, among others, which confirms the growing international projection of Ibero-American animation.
On Monday, March 14, at Casa de América in Madrid, the three finalists by category will be announced. This selection will be made by an international jury made up of Sebastian Debertin (director of international content, purchases and co-productions of KiKA, Germany), Magdiela Hermida Duhamel (founder and co-director of the LatinX in Animation program, United States), Zofia Jaroszuk (producer and production supervisor at Animoon, Poland), Kenneth Ladekjær (‘Flee’ animation director and co-creator of Sun Creature Studio, Denmark) and Hernán La Greca (creative director and content developer, United States).
FEATURES, SERIES AND SHORTS
In the Best Animated Feature Film category, animation aimed at family audiences predominates, although there are also titles for adult audiences. Brazil has three nominations in this category: ‘Bob Cuspe – Nós Não We Gostamos de Gente’, a stop-motion film directed by Cesar Cabral based on the legendary punk character created by cartoonist Angeli; ‘Meu Tio José’, directed by Ducca Rios and set in the last years of the Brazilian dictatorship; and ‘O Pergaminho Vermelho’, an adventure film directed by Nelson Botter Jr.
They will also seek a place among the finalists for Best Feature Film ‘Valentina’ by Galician director Chelo Loureiro, which has just been recognized at the Goya Awards for best animated film; the Peruvian film ‘Ainbo the Amazon Warrior’ by Jose Zelada and Richard Claus, one of the most international titles in recent Latin American animation, and ‘D’Artacán and the Three Muskehounds’, a Spanish production directed by Toni García Martínez and based on the classic animated series signed by Claudio Biern.
In the Best Animated Series category, the Chilean ‘Mundoperro’ by Andrea Cordones and Álvaro Ceppi, and ‘Zander’, a stop-motion series directed by Enrique Ortega; the Brazilian series ‘Irmão do Jorel’, winner of the Quirino Award in this category in 2019 with its third season; and the Uruguayan ‘Dos Pajaritos’, a series co-produced with Argentina and Colombia that in its project stage was promoted by La Liga de la Animación Iberoamericana. The list in this category is completed by the Spanish series for preschoolers ‘Brave Bunnies’ and the Mexican ‘Frankelda’s Hidden Scares’.
‘Bestia’, the new bet of Chilean animation in the race for the Oscars is one of the six nominees in the Best Short Film category. Directed by Hugo Covarrubias and inspired by real events, the film enters the life of a secret police agent in the military dictatorship in Chile. Co-produced between Brazil, the United Kingdom and the United States, ‘Footsteps on the Wind’ will also seek a place in the final list. The film seeks to draw attention to children displaced by war and climate change.
The list of nominees in this category is completed with the Brazilian ‘Tom’ by Felippe Steffens, the Spanish ‘Leopoldo el del bar’ by Diego Porral, the Portuguese ‘A Menina Parada’ by Joana Toste, and the Mexican ‘Tío’, short in stop motion by director Juan Medina from Guadalajara.
Spanish animation adds three nominations in the Best Animation School Short Film category with works from Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia that will compete for a place with works from schools in Uruguay, Chile and Peru.
The organization of the Awards also announced the nominations in the categories Best Ibero-American Commissioned Animation -with three nominations from Argentina-, Best Ibero-American Video Game Animation -with three nominations from Spain and two from Peru-, and the technical categories (Visual Development, Animation Design and Best Sound Design and Original Music).
For the second consecutive year, San Cristóbal de La Laguna will host the Quirino Awards. In addition to the awards ceremony, the city will host the 41st Ordinary Meeting of the Conference of Audiovisual and Cinematographic Authorities of Ibero-America (CAACI) and the 20th Extraordinary Meeting of the Intergovernmental Council of Ibermedia.
In parallel, the Quirinos will host the 5th Co-production and Business Forum, which in its last edition brought together more than 120 company representatives from 19 countries and organized more than 700 professional meetings. Likewise, the Quirino White Book of Ibero-American Animation will present its latest edition during the event.