Ventana Sur: ‘La Liga’ Kicks Off at Buenos Aires’ Animation!
Spain’s Quirino Awards, Argentina’s Animation! and Mexico’s Pixelatl Festival, three key events in Ibero-American animation, will join forces to create La Liga (The League), as announced Wednesday at an Animation! round table hosted by the Quirino Awards, titled “Iberoamerican Alliance Models.”
Speakers included Quirino Awards promoter José Luis Farias, Mexico’s Pixelatl director José Iñesta, Gonzalo Azpiri at Argentina’s Animar Cluster, Milton Guerrero from Animation Peru, José Navarro from Chile’s national lobby Animach) and Liliana Rincón, of Colombia’s Gema animation trade assn.
The Liga’s logo (pictured) was designed by renowned Argentine animation auteur Juan Pablo Zaramella (“The Tiniest Man in the World”).
La Liga all see one of the selected projects at this year’s Animation! pitching sessions awarded a prize consisting of an invitation to attend Tenerife’s Quirino Awards and Cuernavaca’s Pixelatl, plus travel expenses, lodging and full accreditation to both.
“We’ve seen that an increasing trend towards regional co-production under the motto ‘strength through unity.’ Our aim was to strengthen this cooperation with a specific measure, and that’s how the idea for La Liga was born. This new agreement will allow a unique project to attend the three events, and to find co-producers,” Animation! coordinator Silvina Cornillón told Variety.
At each of the three events, a new winner will be chosen and embark on the cycle taking the other two in. La Liga’s first winner will be announced on Friday.
The initiative marks an attempt to systematize the promotion of top animation projects as they become more numerous and internationally competitive across Ibero-America. It’s also a sign of increased collaboration, as co-production becomes crucial to meet market demands for bigger and more ambitious projects.
“Animation has become a co-production sector. Almost every TV-show and feature requires the involvement of several animation studios,” José Iñesta said, adding: “Animation opens a window of opportunity for the economic development of the region, and social transformation as well.”
La Liga dovetails perfectly into the thinking inspiring Quirino Awards, Jose Luis Farias told Variety: “Our main aim is to generate a common space for working and sharing within Ibero-American countries. With La Liga, the three events have committed themselves to a unique project which can boost this sharing to a maximum.”
Ibero-American animation is expanding, as proved by recent successes such as “Huevos: Little Rooster’s Egg-cellent Adventure,” from the Riva Palacio Alatriste brothers and Melanie Simka, Alex Orrelle and Eduardo Schuldt’s “Condorito: the Movie” and Carlos Carrera’s “Ana & Bruno.”
As seen in Tenerife, during last April’s Quirino Awards work sessions, Brazil has some 25 animation titles in production, Argentina 21, followed by Mexico -16, Chile and Peru – six, and Ecuador – five.
Some of the most noteworthy of these features are co-productions, now in progress, including Juan Pablo Buscarini’s “Turuleca’s Funny Farm” (Spain-Argentina), Fermando Socolowicz’s “Homeless” (Argentina-Chile), Gonzalo Gutiérrez’s “Quixote’s” (Argentina-Brazil-Belgium), and David Bisbano’s “Dalia and the Red Book” (Argentina-Peru).
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