▪    A total of 27 works from seven countries will compete for the top award in Ibero-American animation.
▪    The announcement took place in São Paulo, asserting the Ibero-American nature of the Quirino Awards.
▪    The awards ceremony will be held on April 17 in Tenerife, with the main sponsorship of the Tenerife Council through Tenerife Tourism and the Tenerife Film Commission.

São Paulo, March 5, 2026. – A total of 27 works from seven countries will compete in the ninth Ibero-American Animation Quirino Awards, with the winners to be announced on April 17 at a ceremony in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain. The nominees were announced at the Cervantes Institute in São Paulo, Brazil, thus confirming the Ibero-American nature of the Quirino Awards and their mission to bring the different countries in the region together around this industry. Created in 2018 with the aim of promoting animation from the 23 countries of the Ibero-American region, the Quirino Awards are mainly sponsored by the Tenerife Council through Tenerife Tourism and the Tenerife Film Commission.

Selected from 265 entries, the nominated works are in the running for awards in one of seven main categories—Feature Film, Series, Short Film, School Short Film, Commissioned Film, Video Game Animation, and Music Video—as well as in one or more of the three technical categories: Visual Development, Animation Design, and Sound Design and Original Music.

https://premiosquirino.org/en/nominations-2026/

Spain and Portugal top the list of nominees with 11 and 7 works, respectively, confirming the current success of animation in the Iberian Peninsula. Across the Atlantic, Argentina and Brazil lead the Latin American representation with 6 and 4 titles, respectively, followed by Colombia and Mexico with 2 works each, and Chile with one.

Four films will compete for the Best Feature Film award, including two Spanish entries: “Decorado,” the fourth film by Galician director Alberto Vázquez, an existential satire freely adapted from the short film of the same name, which won the Quirino Award for Best Short Film in 2018; and “Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake” by Irene Iborra, a stop-motion animated drama starring a 12-year-old girl who, after the collapse of her family world, must rebuild herself and face the emotional earthquakes that shake her world. Also competing in this category is the Brazilian film “Heart of Darkness,” Rogério Nunes’ debut feature film, which is presented as a reinterpretation of Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” set in a futuristic Rio de Janeiro; and “I am Frankelda” by Arturo and Roy Ambriz, the first Mexican stop-motion feature film, which attracted more than 800,000 viewers in theaters across the country. The Ambriz brothers are already familiar faces at the Quirino Awards, where they won the Best Series award for “Frankelda’s Book of Spooks” in 2022.

Among the nominees for Best Series are the Brazilian series “Tainá and the Amazon’s Guardian” directed by Natália Freitas, which won this award in 2020 and is aiming to repeat the feat with its second season, and the Spanish series “Pocoyó” by Guillermo García Carsí, which is competing with its sixth season after being a finalist in the first edition of the Awards. The selection also includes Colombia’s “There Is Something Behind You” by Julián Gómez Reyes, starring a cunning and enigmatic black cat that guides the viewer through different mystery stories; and Mexico’s “Women Wearing Shoulder Pads” by Gonzalo Córdova, a stop-motion comedy for adult audiences set in Quito in the 1980s.

Institutions, professionals and associations attending the reading of nominations in São Paulo for the 2026 Quirino Awards.

Portuguese animation stands out in the Best Short Film category with two titles: “Because Today Is Saturday” by Alice Eça Guimarães, selected at fifty festivals, and “Dog Alone,” whose director Marta Reis Andrade transforms a personal experience into a magical realism fable about loneliness and family reconnection. The list of nominees is completed by the Spanish short “The Quinta’s Ghost” by James A. Castillo, a horror film that evokes the isolation and inner demons of Goya in his later years; and the Argentine “Luz Diabla,” a psychological thriller co-directed by Gervasio Canda, Paula Boffo, and Patricio Plaza that delves into the Argentine pampas, which are riddled with disturbing supernatural forces.

“There Is Something Behind You” , “Women Wearing Shoulder Pads” , “Pocoyó”, and “Tainá and the Amazon’s Guardian”.

Also announced at the event were the nominees in the categories of Animation School Short Film, Animation Music Video, Animation Commissioned Film, Video Game Animation, and the three technical categories: Visual Development, Animation Design, and Sound Design and Original Music. The complete list of nominees can be found at this link.

The international jury responsible for selecting the winners is made up of Brazilian animator, director, and producer Cesar Cabral, winner of the Quirino Award for Best Feature Film in 2022 with “Bob Cuspe – Nós Não Gostamos de Gente”; Irish Moe Honan, Founder and CEO of Moetion Films; Filipino Marlyn Montano, CEO of PlayLab Animation Studio and TeamApp; Colombian-American Martha Sepúlveda, Senior Development Executive at CAKE Entertainment; and Croatian Krešimir Zubčić, Supervisor of Acquisitions and Animated Content Programming at HRT.

Brazil, a Driving Force Behind Ibero-American Animation
Streamed live across the region, the announcement of the nominees took place in São Paulo at an event attended by Lope Afonso, Vice President and Tourism Advisor to the Tenerife Council, as well as representatives from Ibero-American embassies in Brazil, cultural institutions and organizations, and leading industry professionals, among others.

Brazilian animation was the central theme of a professional meeting held after the announcement of the nominees, attended by representatives from public institutions and production companies across the country. Silvina Cornillón and José Luis Farias, Director and Executive Producer of the Awards, respectively, gave a presentation on the Quirino ecosystem, the Ibero-American cooperation platform which, in addition to the Awards, promotes three industry initiatives: the Co-production and Business Forum, Quirino Lab, and the Quirino Futures Lab.

This was followed by a special session of Quirino Futures Lab, the collective intelligence space focused on strategic analysis of the future of Ibero-American animation. The discussion focused on the current state of the industry in Brazil and addressed the main challenges and opportunities for co-production with Ibero-American countries as a whole. Consultant Alessandra Meleiro presented the 2^nd Mapping of Animation in Brazil, a study conducted by Iniciativa Cultural that provides an updated overview of the animation industry in the country.

The program concluded with a round table discussion moderated by César Cabral, with the participation of Rosa Crescente (TV Cultura), Adriana Pinto (ABCA), Camila Nunes (Abranima), Daniel Tonacci (ANCINE), and Lucas Soussumi (Brazilian Content). The discussion examined the current state of co-productions between Brazil and the rest of Ibero-America, as well as the main opportunities and challenges for regional integration in the industry.

The conclusions of the Quirino Futures Lab in Brazil will be compiled in a document that will serve as input for future sessions of this initiative, which was launched last year during the Quirino Awards.

About the Quirino Awards

Regarded as the most comprehensive ecosystem for Ibero-American animation, Quirino has been working since 2018 to build sustainable professional networks that create long-term economic and cultural value. It began as an Ibero-American animation awards ceremony and later became a strategic platform that integrates the Quirino Awards with an industry area structured around three key initiatives: the Co-Production and Business Forum, the Quirino Lab, and the Futures Lab. Since its inception, Quirino relies on the main sponsorship of the Tenerife Council through Tenerife Tourism and the Tenerife Film Commission.

https://premiosquirino.org/en/jurado-2026/

The ninth edition of the Premios Quirino is primarily sponsored by the Cabildo de Tenerife through Turismo de Tenerife and the Tenerife Film Commission, with additional sponsorship from Proexca, ICEX España Exportación e Inversiones, ICAA, Zona Especial Canaria, and main collaboration from RTVE, TEA (Tenerife Espacio de las Artes) and Welaw. It also receives support from institutions such as Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) through its Programme for the Internationalisation of Spanish Culture (PICE), Fundación Ortega Marañón, CAACI, Programa Ibermedia, OEI, La Liga de la Animación Iberoamericana, DIBOOS, and the Clúster Audiovisual de Canarias, as well as associations of Ibero-American animation creators and production companies.

©CARTOON – from left to right – Producer of the Year: A. Chef, A-L. Guégan, A. Degyse & S. Onomo for „Allah is not obliged“ – Distributor of the Year: E. Chevalier (Les Films du Préeau – FR) – Director of the Year: R. Memari for „The Last Whale Singer“

CARTOON MOVIE TRIBUTES WINNERS ANNOUNCED IN BORDEAUX

European animation celebrates its latest achievements at Cartoon Movie, the pitching and co-production forum dedicated to European animated features, which concludes its 28^th edition today in Bordeaux. Voted by the industry professionals attending the event, the Cartoon Tributes recognise the companies and individuals whose work has made a significant impact on the European animation industry over the previous year.

Cartoon Movie Tributes 2026 winners:

• Producer of the Year: Special Touch Studios (France) / Paul Thiltges Distributions Luxembourg) / Lunanime (Belgium) / Need Productions (Belgium) / Yzanakio (Canada) for “Allah Is Not Obliged”.

• Distributor of the Year: Les Films du Préau (France).

• Director of the Year: Reza Memari for “The Last Whale Singer” (Germany).

The Producer of the Year prize went to France’s Special Touch Studios, Luxembourg’s Paul Thiltges Distributions, Belgium’s Lunanime & Need Productions, and Canada’s Yzanakio for “Allah Is Not Obliged”, Zaven Najjar’s feature debut. Starring a Guinean orphan forced to become a child soldier, the film was presented in development at Cartoon Movie 2018, had its world premiere at the Annecy Film Festival, and was released in cinemas across France on March 4.

Meanwhile, the Distributor of the Year award went to Paris-based Les Films du Préau, an independent film distribution company focused on high-quality films for young audiences. Founded in 2000 by Emmanuelle Chevalier and Marie-Agnès Bourillon, the company boasts a diverse catalogue of more than 200 titles, including “Living Large”, “The Gruffalo” and “Petite Casbah”.

The Director of the Year award was presented to Reza Memari for “The Last Whale Singer”, his second feature after “Richard the Stork”. An animated fantasy for family audiences, the film follows Vincent, the orphaned son of the last Whale Singer, who must overcome his fears and discover his own voice to help save the oceans. Presented at Cartoon Movie at different stages – from concept in 2018 to development in 2020 and production in 2025 – Memari’s new work is a co-production between Germany, the Czech Republic and Canada that has already been sold in more than 30 international territories.

Also among the nominees were Folimage, Les Armateurs, Lunanime, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma, Will Production, JPL Films, Dragons Films, Pictanovo and TNZPV Productions for “The Songbirds’ Secret”; Gringo Films, Fabrique d’Images, Senator Film Produktion and Traumhaus Studios for “Stitch Head”; and MAUR film, Vivement Lundi !, Artichoke and ZVVIKS for “Tales from the Magic Garden” in the Producer of the Year category. In the Director of the Year category, the nominees were Irene Iborra Rizo for “Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake”, Maïlys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han for “Little Amélie or the Character of Rain”, and Ugo Bienvenu for “Arco”. For Distributor of the Year, the nominees were Flins y Pinículas (Spain) and Kino Mediteran (Croatia).

About Cartoon Movie

Since its first edition in 1999, 513 films have been financially supported by Cartoon Movie with a total budget of €3,42 billion. Organised by CARTOON, Cartoon Movie is an annual forum aimed at strengthening the production and distribution of animated feature films in Europe. The event has the support of Creative Europe – MEDIA, CNC (Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée), Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Bordeaux Métropole, Magelis, Creative industries hub in Angoulême, and France Télévisions.
CARTOON – European Association of Animation Film is an international non-profit association based in Brussels that organises Cartoon Movie, together with Cartoon Forum, a co-production forum for animated TV series, and the training seminars CartoonNext, Cartoon Springboard, and Cartoon Business.

CARTOON Director: Annick Maes