Silvina Cornillon è la nuova direttrice dei Premi Quirino

After closing the call for entries for its eighth edition, the Ibero-American Animation Quirino Awards are entering a new phase with the appointment of Argentine Silvina Cornillón as director. After more than two decades in the audiovisual industry, Cornillón has been involved with the Quirino Awards since their inception, as an ambassador in Latin America. In 2023 she took over as coordinator of the Quirino Residency for animation executive producers, a space that will have its first edition this year in Tenerife. She is also a member of La Liga de la Animación Iberoamericana, an alliance promoted by the Quirino Awards together with Animation! of Ventana Sur and Pixelatl to foster the creation and development of audiovisual projects in the region, strengthening the collaboration ties between Ibero-American countries.

The new director replaces Bea Bartolomé, who has also been coordinator of the Co-Production and Business Forum since the opening edition of the Quirino Awards. Previously, and for the first five editions, the position was held by José Luis Farias, current executive producer of these awards created to celebrate and promote the production and circulation of Ibero-American animation works.

“In a changing and complex international context, the animation community is showing an exceptional ability to adapt, innovate and turn challenges into opportunities for growth. In this scenario, the Quirino Awards have put the creative force of ideas and collective work at the service of the sector. As the first Latin American director of the Quirino Awards, I assume this role with the commitment to strengthen them and continue to promote Ibero-American animation,” said Cornillón.

Between 2021 and 2024, Cornillón served as assistant manager of Animation at the National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts of Argentina (INCAA) and between 2016 and 2024 she was coordinator of the Animation! section of Ventana Sur, a platform developed in collaboration with the Annecy Festival Market (MIFA), which has seen more than 1,700 series and feature film projects from around twenty countries in the region. Previously, she worked as a producer in different animation studios in Argentina.

With the main sponsorship of the Tenerife Council, through Turismo de Tenerife, the next edition of the Quirino Awards will be held in San Cristóbal de La Laguna from May 8th to 10th.

Call for Entries Overview
A total of 263 works from 17 countries were submitted to the eighth edition of the Ibero-American Animation Quirino Awards, a 6.4% increase over the previous year.

The works submitted aim to be finalists in the seven main categories: Feature Film, Series, Short Film, School Short Film, Commissioned Film, Video Game Animation and Music Video. The finalists in the main categories will also compete in three technical categories: Visual Development, Animation Design, and Sound Design and Original Music.

Open to animation works from the 23 countries making up the Ibero-American region, 15 feature films, 32 series, 116 short films, 48 school short films, 17 commissioned films, 15 video games and 20 music videos were received, totaling 54 hours of animation. Spain tops the list of countries with the highest representation with 33%, followed by Brazil (14%), Argentina (12%), Mexico (12%), Colombia (8%), Portugal (7%) and Chile (7%). Works have also been received from Bolivia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela.

A Selection Committee will choose six works per category from among all the works submitted, which will be announced in February. The three finalists in each category will be selected by an international jury made up of American producer Ben Kalina of the Titmouse studio, Spanish researcher and programmer Carolina López Caballero, children’s content acquisitions executive at Swedish public broadcaster SVT, Helena Nylander, Brazilian animation director, screenwriter and animator Daniel Bruson, and the executive director of French distributor and producer Prime Entertainment Group, Leyla Formoso. The winners will be announced on May 10 at the closing ceremony.

In the last edition, “Robot Dreams” by Pablo Berger was awarded Best Film, while the second season of the musical series “Jasmine & Jambo” by Silvia Cortés won Best Series, and the award for Best Short Film went to the Brazilian film “Lulina e a Lua” by Marcus Vinicius Vasconcelos and Alois Di Leo. Other films from Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Portugal were also awarded in the other categories.

About the Quirino Awards
The Awards were named after Quirino Cristiani, 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.  A total of 1992 works have been submitted for these awards since their first call for entries in 2017. The last edition of the Quirino had the main sponsorship of the Cabildo de Tenerife through Turismo de Tenerife and the Tenerife Film Commission, as well as the sponsorship of the City Council of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, ICEX España Exportación e Inversiones, Promotur Turismo Canarias, the Government of the Canary Islands and the ICAA; the collaboration of CAACI, Ibermedia Programme, Acción Cultural Española through the Programme for the Internationalisation of Spanish Culture (PICE), OEI, MAFIZ-Festival de Málaga, RTVE, UHY Fay & Co, La Liga de la Animación Iberoamericana, Retina Latina, Filmin, Multicines Tenerife and Culturamanía; and the support of DIBOOS, SAVE, Pixelatl, Animation! Ventana Sur, Weird Market, La Mesta, Pantalla, Clúster Audiovisual de Canarias and Annecy Festival; as well as the associations APA – Asociación de Productoras de Animación de Córdoba Argentina; Animar Cluster – Cluster Argentino de Animación & VFX; ABCA – Associação Brasileira de Cinema de Animação; Animachi Chile; Red de Animadores Bolivianos; GEMA Colombia – Grupo Empresas Animación; Animation Costa Rica; Gremio de Animadores de Ecuador; ACDMX – Asociación de Creativos Digitales de México; Paraguay Animation; Peru Animación; and Casa da Animação de Portugal.