SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, May 13. (EUROPE PRESS) –
Portuguese animation has been the protagonist in the sixth edition of the Quirino Awards after obtaining four of the nine awards of this initiative created to promote Ibero-American animation. The Quirino Awards ceremony was held this Saturday at the Teatro Leal in La Laguna and was broadcast online for the whole world.
The feature film ‘Nayola’ and the short films ‘O Homem do Lixo’, ‘Ice Merchants’ and ‘Garrano’ were the Portuguese works recognized in an edition that also paid tribute to the centenary of animation in that country. Together with them, works from Spain and Argentina were also distinguished.
‘Nayola’, by Portuguese director José Miguel Ribeiro, was chosen as Best Feature Film. This Praça Filmes production tells the story of three generations of Angolan women marked by the extensive civil war that the country suffered at the end of the last century. Premiered in the official competition of the Annecy Festival in 2022 and internationally recognized in a dozen competitions, Ribeiro’s first feature film is an adaptation of the play ‘A Caixa Preta’ by Eduardo Agualusa and Mia Coutode.
For its part, the award for Best Series went to the Spanish ‘Jasmine & Jambo’ by Silvia Cortés, which seeks to explain musical concepts and genres to preschool audiences through the adventures of two friends who are passionate about music. Produced by the Catalan Teidees Audiovisuals in co-production with TV3, the first season of this series has been broadcast in more than 15 countries.
Recognized as Best Short, ‘O Homem do Lixo’ by Laura Gonçalves is a Bando à Parte production that reflects the poetry, nostalgia and authorial stamp that characterizes Portuguese animation in recent decades. Made in 2D animation, the film tells the story of Tio Botão, a man capable of transforming garbage into authentic treasures.
In the Best Animation School Short Film category, the award went to ‘Chimborazo’, directed by the Ecuadorian Keila Cepeda and produced by the UPV Universitat Politècnica de València. As for the Best Commissioned Work, the award went to the Argentinean ‘Este perro está raro’ by Facundo Quiroga, Juan Nadalino and Sebastián García, while ‘Endling-Extinction Is Forever’, developed by the Spanish company Herobeat Studios, collected the Award for Best Video Game Animation.
Portuguese animation also excelled in the technical categories, after winning two of the three awards: ‘Ice Merchants’ by João Gonzalez won the Best Visual Development award, while ‘Garrano’ by David Doutel and Vasco Sá won the Best Visual Development award. Sound Design and Original Music.
The list of winners was completed with the Argentine stop motion short film ‘Pasajero’ by Juan Pablo Zaramella, winner of the Best Animation Design award.
The winners were chosen by an international jury made up of Andrea Fernández, Julio Bonet, Risa Cohen, Robert Jaszczurowski and Simón Wilches-Castro.
At the gala, a tribute was also paid to Claudio Biern Boyd, producer and creator of animated series such as ‘David, the Gnome’, ‘D’Artacán y los tres Mosqueperros’ and ‘Around the World with Willy Fog’. Born in Palma de Mallorca in 1940 and died on October 17, Biern Boyd was the founder of BRB Internacional and Apolo Films, production companies behind some of the series and films that marked Spanish animation at the end of the last century.
With this new edition, the Quirino Awards confirm their relevance in the construction of a common space for the animation of the 23 countries of the Ibero-American region, made up of the countries of Latin America, Spain and Portugal.
The Awards were named in honor of Quirino Cristiani, creator of the first animated feature film in history (‘The Apostle’, from 1917), an Argentine production that used 58,000 hand-drawn drawings shot on 35mm.
