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Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Quirino Awards' New Director Silvina Cornillón Charts a Bold Future for Ibero-American Animation
Silvina Cornillón, a well-known champion of Latin American animation, steps into her new role as director of the Quirino Awards with a clear mission: expand the event's reach and cement its position as a driving force for Ibero-American animation. 'This isn't just symbolic,' Cornillón told Variety of her appointment as the first Latin American director of the Quirino Awards, which will take place this weekend on the Spanish Canary Island of Tenerife. 'It's a commitment to ensuring diverse voices are represented and strengthening the bridge connecting all of Ibero-America.' More from Variety 'Buffalo Kids,' 'They Shot the Piano Player,' 'Black Butterflies' Lead 2025 Quirino Award Nominations Silvina Cornillón Takes the Helm at the Ibero-American Animation Quirino Awards Amid Record Submissions Spanish Animation Wins Big at the Quirino Awards With Gongs for 'Robot Dreams' 'Jasmine & Jambo,' 'Sultana's Dream' Cornillón took the reins in a transitional year, joining mid-cycle as the eighth edition of Quirino geared up for its annual gathering in Tenerife. Alongside the team, she's already steering big ideas, particularly the launch of the new Futures Lab, which she described as a 'collective intelligence project' designed to generate forward-looking strategies for the regional animation sector. 'Every year, we've built platforms for collaboration, but we realized the conversation often stayed between us,' she explained. 'With the Futures Lab, we want to think bigger. We're not just organizing meetings; we're committing the sector's key players to sit together, anticipate future scenarios, and transform ideas into concrete actions.' Backed by Spain's ICAA, the Futures Lab will bring together top industry names, public institutions, and policy thinkers to map out trends, tackle challenges like sustainability, explore the implications of AI, and deliver a strategic roadmap that can be presented at upcoming cultural summits. There are hopes this initiative will even feed into national policies across the region. Importantly, Cornillón is not blind to the anxieties surrounding new technologies. While acknowledging the fears, particularly around the integration of AI into production pipelines, she sees opportunity. 'Like any new technology, it creates uncertainty, even fear,' she admits. 'But if we can integrate AI smartly, it could offer smaller studios and independent creators the tools to make content more competitively and at lower cost.' This measured optimism echoes through Quirino as an intimate gathering attracting some global heavyweights such as Disney, Warner Bros., and Titmouse, all present at the event's Co-Production and Business Forum alongside local, independent producers and filmmakers. 'When international executives find projects with authentic perspectives, and when regional producers see how they can align their strategies, the entire ecosystem strengthens,' Cornillón said. 'It's not just about dealmaking; it's about real collaboration.' Cornillón's own track record includes years of advocacy both as assistant manager of animation at the National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts of Argentina (INCAA) and coordinating the revered Animation! section of Ventana Sur, but she's cognisant that true industry change requires more than just raising profiles; it's about shifting structures. She points to success stories like the Chile-Spain co-production 'Firsts,' which started life winning La Liga award in 2019 before being pitched at Annecy in 2020 and arrives at Quirino successfully completed and nominated in Best Series. 'These are the kinds of stories where you see that what we do at Quirino has a real, traceable impact on careers,' Cornillón said. 'It's a privilege to be part of that.' The Quirino team, led alongside longtime collaborators, including the current executive producer of the awards, José Luis Farias, has broad ambitions to secure long-term stability and expansion. 'There's so much possibility,' she said, reflecting on the team's plans for a multi-year strategy post-2025. 'We want to think beyond one edition to the next; we want to create a plan, a roadmap.' She also sees the uniqueness of Quirino as key to its strength: 'It's not Cannes; it's not Annecy. There's space here, space for connection, for reflection, for meaningful exchange between small players and big ones.' This style of leadership seems set to combine pragmatism with a utopian spirit, one she believes defines the animation world itself. 'Animation is an incredibly demanding craft,' she reflects. 'It takes love, discipline, and often this almost utopian desire to change the world. So when you can help make one of those dreams real, that's when everything makes sense.' Quirino's opens for its eighth edition with Cornillón and her team not just celebrating Ibero-American talent, but determined to shape its future. Best of Variety All the Godzilla Movies Ranked Final Oscar Predictions: International Feature – United Kingdom to Win Its First Statuette With 'The Zone of Interest' 'Game of Thrones' Filming Locations in Northern Ireland to Open as Tourist Attractions
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Quirino's Futures Lab Seeks to Build, Not Predict Ibero-American Animation's Next Moves
The Futures Lab, a new initiative unveiled at the Quirino Awards, brought together leading voices from the Ibero-American animation to grapple not with predictions but with possibilities. 'We're not here to predict what will come, but to build it actively,' said Silvina Cornillón, capturing the Lab's ambition to braid past, present, and future as the sector navigates existential change. Supported by the Ortega Marañón Foundation, it featured speakers such as Henar León, head of innovation and subsidies at PRISA, who outlined the global megatrends reshaping the audiovisual industries from artificial intelligence and sustainability to political turbulence, market uncertainties, and shifting consumer behaviors. 'We are living in a time where technology is moving faster than we've ever experienced in human history,' León told the packed audience, warning that the rapid rise of AI and emerging tech would bring both risks and opportunities for the animation world. More from Variety Quirino Awards' New Director Silvina Cornillón Charts a Bold Future for Ibero-American Animation 'Buffalo Kids,' 'They Shot the Piano Player,' 'Black Butterflies' Lead 2025 Quirino Award Nominations Silvina Cornillón Takes the Helm at the Ibero-American Animation Quirino Awards Amid Record Submissions José Luis Farias, executive producer and coordinator of the Lab, reflected on the progress made since the Quirino Awards' launch eight years ago. While initiatives like the Ibermedia Next program and the White Book of Ibero-American animation have created collaboration, Farias acknowledged the numerous remaining challenges. 'We've been trying to find concrete solutions to concrete problems, but now we need a more holistic, global vision,' he said. 'We have to use collective intelligence because we are all in this together.' Across three breakout groups, participants sat in the round, sharing viewpoints as they worked to map out what the Lab called the Weight of the Past honoring artisanal skills, cultural heritage, and storytelling traditions; the Push of the Present from leadership development to the creation of original IP; and the Pull of the Future envisioning stronger alliances, cross-sector collaborations, and a responsible approach to AI integration. Summing up the day's discussions, Federico Ullolo, cultural director of the Ortega Marañón Foundation, outlined four aspirational scenarios emerging from the Lab. The first was an 'official scenario,' recognizing that 'we're not that bad' and that the sector has much to be proud of. The second, a 'chaotic scenario,' warned that doing nothing risks stagnation. A third, 'visionary scenario,' imagined a future where Ibero-American animation fully realizes its potential to help build society by shaping values, education, and economic growth. Finally, an 'alternative scenario' focused on strengthening alliances grounded in the sector's unique values. 'This is a sector that has always adapted, that has continued to generate value,' Ullolo emphasized. 'We need to understand the value and potential of Ibero-American animation in the construction of society.'It will continue beyond the Quirino Awards, with upcoming online and in-person workshops leading up to a presentation to international cultural leaders at Barcelona's Mondialcult event in September. As Farias put it, 'We're moving from isolated initiatives to a collective narrative. And that narrative needs all of us.' By bringing these ideas together into a shared narrative, the hope is to offer policymakers a clearer understanding of how to support and sustain the cultural value a broad and diverse animation industry provides. Best of Variety All the Godzilla Movies Ranked Final Oscar Predictions: International Feature – United Kingdom to Win Its First Statuette With 'The Zone of Interest' 'Game of Thrones' Filming Locations in Northern Ireland to Open as Tourist Attractions
