The first edition of the event gathers more than 250 professionals to the Spanish isle on April 6-7.
TENERIFE, SPAIN -- The Ibero-American animation industry gathers in Santa Cruz de Tenerife April 6 and 7 around the Quirino Awards, a pioneer event in the region that seeks to celebrate and strengthen bonds between animation producers and artists in Latin America, Portugal and Spain.
The celebration is comprised of three main activities: the awards ceremony that will take place April 7 in the Auditorium of Tenerife, bestowing nine awards to the best animation of the region; the Coproduction Forum, a professional space oriented toward establishing connections; and the International Animation Congress for academic and professional discussions.
Twenty-four works from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay vie for Quirino Awards in nine categories. Spain, with 12 finalist works, is the most represented territory, followed by Mexico and Colombia, with five each. Among the selected works are titles held internationally, such as the feature films Tad Jones 2, The Book of Lila (Colombia-Uruguay) and Ana and Bruno (Mexico); the series Paper Port (Chile-Brazil-Colombia-Argentina) or Pocoyó (Spain), and the short films Cerulia (Mexico) and Decorado (Spain), among others.
The Quirino Awards also will recognize the best school work, a category that includes as finalists We Are the Immigrants (Colombia-United States), A Day in the Park (Spain) and Tántalo (Argentina).
The Coproduction Forum will include multiple networking zones, such as B2B coproduction meetings, meeting corners and industry presentations by professional associations of various attending nations.
The International Congress will present eleven communications from Brazil, Denmark, Ecuador, Spain, Mexico and Portugal. Also attending is animation historian, teacher and writer Giannalberto Bendazzi and Argentine filmmaker María Laura Ruggiero.
A working table will be held with representatives of universities, schools and training centers in Latin America. Among the confirmed are The Animation Workshop, SAE Institute Mexico, Polytechnic University of Valencia, University San Francisco de Quito, University of Aveiro, Anhembi Morumbi University, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Barreira Art + Design, University of La Laguna, University Nacional de Tierra de Fuego, Lightbox Academy and U-tad.
There also will be several screenings of the finalists at the Tenerife Espacio de las Artes.
The awards themselves are named in honor of the creator of the first feature-length animation film in history: the Italian-Argentinean Quirino Cristiani, who in 1917 directed El Apóstol. This Argentinean production, shot in 35mm, used 58,000 drawings done by hand along with a number of models representing public buildings and streets in Buenos Aires.
Source: Quirino Awards
Tom McLean has been writing for years about animation from a secret base in Los Angeles.
