Sergio Pablos’ “Klaus,” Netflix’s first foray into original animated feature production, walked off with best feature at Saturday’s 3rd Quirino Awards, which celebrate outstanding animation in Latin America, Spain and Portugal.
The first feature as a director of Sergio Pablos, a co-creator of “Despicable Me,” “Klaus” has already scored an Oscar nomination as well as proving the big winner at this year’s Annie Awards.
Produced by Netflix with Pablos’ Madrid-based SPA Studios and Atresmedia Cine, ”Klaus” also snagged best animation design prize at the Quirinos – recognition of a daring production which was made in traditional 2D, but allows characters to move through backgrounds, using light as part of storytelling while drawing on 19th century photos and painting for a visual language.
The Quirino Awards’ best TV series plaudit went to a far less-known title, Brazilian CG-preschool hit “Tainá and the Amazon’s Guardians,” co-produced by Sincrocine, Hype Animation and Nickelodeon and directed by Andrè Forni (“Dino Aventuras”). Netflix recently took rights to “Tainá” for Latin America.
Colombian stop-motion title “The Cubicbird” took best short. Directed by Jorge Alberto Vega, written by Marcos Mas and produced by La Valiente Estudio and Cintadhesiva Comunicaciones “Cubicbird” adapts the same-titled novel by Mas about a bird in a cage which sets out to gain its freedom. The title was also awarded at Bogotá’s Bogoshorts event last year.
Two Portugal productions, João Gonzalez’ “Nestor” and Bruno Caetano’s “The Peculiar Crime of Mr Jay,” also won several prizes.
Gonzalez’s first-year film at the U.K.’s Royal College of Art, “Nestor” won sound design and original music in addition to best student short Gonzalez wrote the original soundtrack which was performed by cello player Miguel Teixeira. Ed Rousseau oversaw the sound mix.
Short “The Peculiar Crime” took the best visual development award. A co-production between Portugal’s Cola-Colectivo Audiovisual and France’s Wild Stream, the title blends stop-motion with other techniques.
In the run-up to the Quirino Awards, their organizers staged online panels and talks such as “Women in Ibero-American Animation,” “New Technologies Applied to Animation Production,” and “Sustainability in Animation.”
Backed by Spain’s Institute for Foreign Commerce (ICEX), the Animation from Spain umbrella and Proexca –a Canary Islands public-sector body boosting strategic inward investment, the Quirinos also hosted a Co-production and Business Forum that registered over 800 B2B meetings taking 90 professionals from 19 countries, according to the organizers.
“The Forum is a key part of the Quirino Awards and helped to keep the industry engines running, with contents continuing to be bought and sold,” Quirino Awards promoter José Luis Farias told Variety.
WINNERS OF THE 2020 IBERO-AMERICAN QUIRINO AWARDS
BEST FEATURE
“Klaus,” (Sergio Pablos, Spain)
BEST SERIES
“Tainá and the Amazon’s Guardians,” (André Forni, Brazil)
BEST SHORT FILM
“The Cubicbird,” (Jorge Alberto Vega, Colombia)
BEST STUDENT SHORT FILM
“Nestor,” (João Gonzalez, Portugal, U.K.)
BEST COMMISSIONED FILM
“Mate?,” (Dalmiro Buigues, Martin Dasnoy, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay)
ANIMATION FOR VIDEOGAME
“Gris,” (Conrad Roset, Spain)
BEST VISUAL DEVELOPMENT
“The Peculiar Crime of Mr. Jay,” (Portugal, France)
BEST ANIMATION DESIGN
“Klaus,” (Spain)
SOUND DESIGN AND ORIGINAL MUSIC
“Nestor,” (Portugal, U.K.)