The Ibero-American Animation Quirino Awards Announce the Winners Of Their Seventh Edition
Skwigly
The Ibero-American Animation Quirino Awards closed their seventh edition with a clear predominance of Spain, which won five of the ten awards presented today in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Tenerife. “Robot Dreams” by Pablo Berger was recognized as Best Film, while the second season of the musical series “Jasmine & Jambo” by Silvia Cortés won Best Series. The award for Best Short Film went to Brazil’s “Lulina and the Moon” by Marcus Vinicius Vasconcelos and Alois Di Leo. Other films from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Portugal were also awarded. With the main sponsorship of the Tenerife Council, the awards ceremony for these prizes, created to promote Ibero-American animation, was broadcast online for the whole world.
After being a finalist in the last edition of the Oscars, “Robot Dreams” tells a story of friendship between a dog and a robot in New York in the 1980s. Produced by Spain’s Arcadia Motion Pictures and Lokiz Films, this is Berger’s first animated feature, having previously directed “Torremolinos 73”, “Snow White” and “Abracadabra”. The film also won the award for Best Sound Design and Original Music, composed by Alfonso de Vilallonga.
After winning the award for Best Series in 2023, “Jasmine & Jambo” has once again claimed the trophy in this category with its second season. Aimed at preschool audiences, the series stars two characters with a passion for music, relating it to life and emotions, and explaining musical concepts. The series is produced by the Barcelona-based production company Teidees Audiovisuals, in co-production with Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals.
Marcus Vinicius Vasconcelos and Alois Di Leo won Best Short Film with “Lulina and the Moon”, a poetic work in 2D animation conceived as a tribute to childhood. Lulina is a little girl who deals with her conflicts using her drawings, which are brought to life by her imagination. With this work, Di Leo returns to the Quirino Awards, where he was recognized in 2018 for his short film “Caminho dos Gigantes”. For his part, Vasconcelos’ works have won nominations and awards at various international festivals.
The Best School Short Film award went to the drama “The Leak”, a stop-motion work by Colombian-Belgian Paola Cubillos produced by KASK & Conservatorium Hogeschool Gent and Vrije Universiteit Brussels. In the newly created Best Music Video category, the award went to “All the Best”, a music video directed by Argentine Pablo Roldán for the electropop band Siamés. “In the Stars”, a production by Chile’s Punkrobot Studio directed by Oscar-winner Gabriel Osorio, won the award for Best Commissioned Animation. The short film is part of the anthology “Star Wars: Visions”.
The list of winners was completed with the award for Best Video Game Animation, which went to “The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo” directed by Nacho Rodríguez and developed by the Spanish company Gammera Nest, and with the technical awards for Best Visual Development, which went to the Spanish feature film “Sultana’s Dream” by Isabel Herguera, and Best Animation Design, awarded to the Portuguese short film “Cold Soup” by Marta Monteiro.
Finally, Héctor and Liliana Cristiani—grandson and great-granddaughter of Quirino Cristiani, respectively—received the Honorary Award. Cristiani was the 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 jury for this edition was made up of directors José Miguel Ribeiro (Portugal), Marcela Rincón (Colombia) and Wesley Louis (United Kingdom), together with Zane Valeniece (LTV, Latvia) and Emmanuèle Petry (Dandelooo, France). The 25 finalists were chosen from among 247 submissions. Since their creation, a total of 1,729 works have been submitted to these awards, which since their inception have contributed to the creation of a common space for animation in the Ibero-American region.