Portugal Shines At 2023 Quirino Awards As ‘Nayola’ Nabs Best Feature, ‘The Garbage Man’ Best Short

This year’s 6th edition of the Ibero-American Animation Quirino Awards was held in the Canary Island city of Tenerife over the weekend and reinforced the fact that Portugal is experiencing a golden age of animation. Portuguese productions took home best feature, best short, and best visual development on the night, making a strong statement about the state of the country’s industry.

This year’s top feature honor went to José Miguel Ribeiro’s Nayola, produced by Praça Films in Portugal. The feature, adapted from Eduardo Agualusa’s play A Caixa Preta, tells the story of three generations of Angolan women and how their lives were affected by the Angolan civil war. Nayola enjoyed a strong festival run over the past year after world premiering in competition at Annecy.

Laura Gonçlavez’s The Garbage Man continued its impressive year-long journey by winning the Quirino for best short. Last June, the film world premiered at Animafest Zareb, where it won the gran prix for best short as well as the audience award. The film is based on interviews that Goncalves conducted with family members about her uncle, who was a sanitation worker in France for three decades.

João Gonzalez’s Oscar-nominated short Ice Merchants was another Portuguese winner at the Qurino’s, taking home the award for best visual development.

Sticking to the Iberian Peninsula, Silvia Cortés’ Jasmine & Jambo was selected as the year’s best Ibero-American animated series. The show explains to its preschool audience musical concepts in a fun and easy-to-understand way. It’s produced by Teidees Audiovisuals in co-production with broadcaster TV3 and has already been distributed in 10 other territories.

Other award-winners on the night included 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).

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

In addition to celebrating the year’s best Ibero-American animation, the awards also paid tribute to Claudio Biern Boyd, a legend in Spanish animation who created era-defining series in Spain such as The World of David the Gnome, Dogtanian and the Three Muskahounds, and Around the World with Willy Fog.

2023 Quirino Award Winners

Feature

• Nayola, José Miguel Ribeiro (Portugal, Belgium, France, Netherlands)

Animation Series

• Jasmine & Gambo S1, Silvia Cortés (Spain)

Short

• The Garbage Man, Laura Gonçalves (Portugal)

Animation School Short

• Chimborazo, Keila Cepeda (Spain)

Commissioned Film

• This Dog Looks Weird, Facundo Quiroga, Juan Nadalino, Sebastián García (Argentina)

Video Game

• Endling – Extinction is Forever, Herobeat Studios (Spain)

Visual Development

• Ice Merchants, João Gonzalez (Portugal, France, U.K.)

Animation Design

• Passenger, Juan Pablo Zaramella (Argentina)

Sound Design and Original Music

• Garrano, David Doutel, Vasco Sá (Portugal, Lithuania)