Portugal’s animation stars shone brightly at the sixth edition of the Quirino Awards, winning four of the nine awards given to promote Ibero-American animation. The feature film Nayola and the short films The Garbage Man, Ice Merchants and Garrano were the Portuguese works recognized in an edition that also paid tribute to 100 years of animation in that country.
Works from Spain and Argentina also received awards during the ceremony held on May 13 at the Teatro Leal in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Tenerife, and broadcast online worldwide.
Nayola by Portuguese director José Miguel Ribeiro was chosen Best Feature Film. This Praça Filmes production tells the story of three generations of Angolan women marked by the long civil war 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 José Eduardo Agualusa and Mia Couto.
Meanwhile, the award for Best Series went to Spain’s Jasmine & Jambo by Silvia Cortés, a series that seeks to explain musical concepts and genres to a preschool audience through the adventures of two friends who are passionate about music. Produced by the Catalan company Teidees Audiovisuals in co-production with TV3, the first season of the series has been broadcast in more than ten countries around the world.
Awarded Best Short Film, The Garbage Man by Laura Gonçalves is a Bando à Parte production that reflects the poetry, saudade and authorial signature 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 real treasures.
The winners were chosen by an international jury made up of Andrea Fernández, Julio Bonet, Risa Cohen, Robert Jaszczurowski and Simón Wilches-Castro.
The ceremony also paid tribute to Claudio Biern Boyd, producer, and creator of animated series such as The World of David the Gnome, Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds and Around the World with Willy Fog, among others. Biern Boyd was born in Palma de Mallorca in 1940 and died last October 17. He was the founder of BRB Internacional and Apolo Films, the production companies behind some of the series and films that marked Spanish animation at the end of the last century.
Sponsored by the Cabildo de Tenerife, the Quirino Awards reaffirm with this new edition their relevance in the construction of a common space for animation in the 23 countries of this region comprising the countries of Latin America, Spain and Portugal.
2023 Quirino Award Winners
- Best Ibero-American Animation Feature Film: Nayola, by José Miguel Ribeiro, produced by Praça Filmes, en coproducción con JPL Films, Soil Productions, Il Luster, Luna Blue Filmes (Portugal, Belgium, France, The Netherlands)
- Best Ibero-American Animation Series: Jasmine & Jambo – Season 1, by Sílvia Cortés, produced by Teidees Audiovisuals, Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals, con la participación de IB3 (Televisió de les illes Balears), Institut Català de les Empreses Culturals (Spain)
- Best Ibero-American Animation Short Film: The Garbage Man by Laura Gonçalves, produced by Bando à Parte (Portugal)
- Best Ibero-American Animation School Short Film: Chimborazo by Keila Cepeda, produced by Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain)
- Best Ibero-American Animation Commissioned Film: This Dog Looks Weird by Facundo Quiroga, Juan Nadalino & Sebastián García, produced by Kiosko (Argentina).
- Best Ibero-American Animation for Video Game: Endling – Extinction Is Forever, developed for Herobeat Studios (Spain)
- Best Visual Development of Ibero-American Animation Work: Ice Merchants by João Gonzalez, produced by Cola Animation, Wild Stream, Royal College of Art (Portugal, France, U.K.)
- Best Animation Design of Ibero-American Animation Work: Passenger by Juan Pablo Zaramella, produced by JPZtudio (Argentina)
- Best Sound Design and Original Music of Ibero-American Animation Work: Garrano by David Doutel & Vasco Sá, produced by Bap – Animation Studios, Art Shot (Portugal, Lithuania)
Learn more about the Quirino Awards and conference at premiosquirino.org.
