May 15, 2023

Portugal has been named "Nayola" Nabs Best Feature and "The Garbage Man" Best Short at the 2023 Quirino Awards.

This year's 6th annual Ibero-American Animation Quirino Awards, held over the weekend in Tenerife, the Canary Islands, reinforced the fact that Portugal is experiencing a golden age of animation. The Portuguese production took the best features of the house at night, the best short, the best visual development, making a strong statement about the state of the country's industry.

This year's Best Feature award was given to José Miguel Ribeiro's Nayola, produced by Praça Films in Portugal. Adapted from Eduardo Aguarusa's play A Caixa Preta, the feature tells the story of three generations of Angolan women and how their lives were affected by the Angolan Civil War. Nayora enjoyed a strong festival over the last year after a world premiere at a competition in Annecy.

Laura Gonçlavez's The Garbage Man continued an impressive 1-year journey by winning the Best Short award at Quirino. On May 6 last year, it was released at Animafest Zareb for the first time, winning the Best Short and Audience Award. The film is based on an interview Goncalves conducted with his family about his uncle, who was a sanitation worker for three decades in France.

Joãogonzarez's Oscar-nominated Short Ice Merchant was another Portuguese winner at Qurino's and won the best visual development Award.

Sticking to the Iberian Peninsula, Sylvia Cortez's Jasmine & Jumbo was named Best Ibero-American Animated Series of the year. The show explains to its preschool audience musical concepts in a fun and understandable way. It was produced by Teidees Audiovisuals in collaboration with broadcaster TV3 and has already been distributed in 10 other regions.

Other winners of the night include Keila Cepeda's Chimborazo (school short), Facundo Quiroga, Juan Nadalino and Sebastián García's This Dog Looks Weird (commissioned film), Herobeat Studios' Endling-Extinction is Forever (video game), Juan Pablo Zaramella's Passenger (animation design), and David Doutel and Vasco Sá's Garrano (Sound design and original music) were included.

This year's Quirino jury included Andrea Fernández, Julio Bonet, Risa Cohen, Robert Jaszczurowski and Simón Wilches-Castro.

In addition to celebrating the best Ibero-American animation of the year, the award also pays tribute to Claudio Biern Boyd, the Spanish animation legend who created series that define the times in Spain such as the World of David Norm, Dogtanian and Three Muskahounds. All over the world with Willie Fog.

2023 Quirino Prize Winner

Feature Film

Animated Series

Short Film

Animated School Short Film

Commissioned Film

Video game

Visual Development

Animation Design

Sound design and original music