Quirino Awards Launch 2nd Co-Production Forum for Ibero-American Animation
By Emilio Mayorga
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – BARCELONA – The Quirino Awards will launch its 2nd Co-Production Forum for Ibero-American Animation which will take place around the awards ceremony, on the Canary Island of Tenerife over April 16-18 next year.
The call for project submissions to the animation market kicks off Dec. 4 and will be announced the same day at Buenos Aires’ Ventana Sur event.
The event will mainly see presentations, of individual titles, work sessions and B2B meetings where producers will have access to key Ibero-American industry players. The organization will place especial emphasis on inviting international companies from Europe, it said.
Last year, the 1st Co-production Forum ran up 650 meetings welcomed 150 participants coming from 20 countries. Acquisitions companies attending the event. such as U.S. PGS, U.K.’s Cake Entertainment and GFM Films, Brazil’s Gloob, Argentina’s Cartoon Network and Discovery and Hong Kong’s Mattel The “early bird” closing for the projects submission will be Feb. 20, a final deadline March 2.
The has joined forces with Ventana Sur’s Animation! and Mexico’s Pixelatl Festival to set up the Ibero-American Animation League. Among its ongoing initiatives is La Liga Award, an invitation for an Ibero-American project where a fully-paid up participant can attend the three events.
The jury for the 2010 Quirino Awards will include Alfredo Marun, director of development at Disney Television Animation, Anja Franczak, a creative producer at Poland’s Human Ark, Véronique Encrenaz, head of the Annecy Festival’s MIFA market; Vera Verba, manager at Youtube’s Sesame Workshop, and production designer and layout artist Simón Vladimir Varela.
Finished animated works may apply for submission to the Quirino Awards until Dec. 12 in its nine categories whose original language is mostly Spanish, Portuguese or other non-hegemonic languages spoken in the Ibero-American region.
The Quirino Awards were created to celebrate the flourishing animation sector in Latin America, Spain and Portugal, and to promote international co-production. Event was named in honor of Argentina’s Quirino Cristiani, the director of “El Apóstol” (1917), said to be the world’s first animated feature, which sadly was lost in a fire.
Tenerife is decisively backing the animation sector in Spain through its label Tenerife Isla Cartoon. The Quirino Awards is a key event among its various initiatives.
Others include an intensive animation workshop Bridging the Gap (BTG), a 40% tax rebate for foreign shows animated in the Islands with a $224,000 minimum local spend, and a special fiscal zone (Zona Especial Canaria, ZEC) allowing companies launched in the Islands to pay just 4% in corporation tax.
Colombia’s “Tropical Virus” (pictured), from director Santiago Caicedo snagged Best Animated Feature at last Quirino’s edition. It competed at the Berlinale, took an Audience Award at SXSW and garnered a swathe of other nominations at international events. Brazilian Juliano Enrico’s series “Irmão do Jorel – Seja Brócolis” and Nara Normande’s Brazilian short film “Guaxuma” were also awarded in the main categories.
The Quirino Awards are backed by Spanish Film Institute (ICAA), Spanish Agency for International Cooperation Development (AECID), pan-regional fund Ibermedia, the Brazilian Hispanic Cultural Foundation, Spanish pubcaster RTVE, Pixelatl, WEIRD (formerly 3D Wire), Ventana Sur’s Animation! and the Annecy Festival, as well as several embassies and animation lobbies in the region.
