The Quirino Awards first edition will be held in Tenerife; Spanish Canary Island. The awards are a tribute to Ibero, an American animation film. Ibero-America refers to the geographical description of Portuguese and Spanish speaking countries located in South and Central America. The awards will take place on April 6-8 2018. The event seeks to unite the Atlantic animation market and bring together producers and artists from all the countries that will be participating.
The awards have been named after Quirino Cristiani; author of the first feature length animation film ‘El Apostol’. The film was shot in Argentina in 1917 and has been edited to 70 minutes. The Quirino awards honours TV shows, feature films, online series and short films. The awards are sponsored by a local government department that promotes tourism; Turismo de Tenerife in collaboration with Festival of animation, Spain’s 3D Wire International Animation and Tenerife Film Commission. Here’s the Quirino’s Awards history:
Quirino’s Early Life
He was born on 14th January 1910 to a Berlin father who was a doctor; Jose Quirino and to a Spanish mother; Dolores Lozada. She was in charge of the Spanish military band (Banda Military). Quirino went to De LA Selle high school. He enrolled for a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism in 1931 at the University of Wisconsin at Madisoni. In 1935, he wrote his first biography ‘Man of Destiny’ on President Manuel Quezon. Quirino worked as an assistant for his uncle Elpidio Quirino in 1936 and in return paid for his law studies fees. Quirino passed the bar in 1940.
Thereafter, Quirino enlisted as a second lieutenant in the Philippine Army before World War II outbreak. Due to the Japanese invasion, he was captured and forced to take part in the Bataan Death March. Eventually Quirino was able to escape and went underground to join the resistance movement to which he was providing information after spying on the Japanese.
Director of The National Library
In 1961, President Diosdado Macapagal appointed Quirino the Director of the National Library. His in-depth knowledge made him to be commissioned to write about the Roxas family, Zobel and Ayala histories. Later on Fernando Zobel entrusted him with supervising diorama exhibit creations which formed the Ayala Museum beginnings. In 1970, Quirino became the museum’s first director. He was also tasked with writing Madrigal and Danding Cojuangco family history.
His Legacy
He pioneered the historical literature in English and was renowned for writing biographies of important Filipinos. He wrote a lot of books on Philippine culture and history during his lifetime. He covered art, agriculture, politics, business and war topics. ‘The Great Malayan’ biography (1940) on José Rizal was among the first biography he wrote in English and which won him a prize. Other notable works include ‘The Philippines’ and ‘Magsaysay’ (1958), ‘Philippine Cartography’ (1959), ‘Damian Domingo’ (1961), ‘The History of the Philippine Sugar Industry’ (1974) and ‘Filipinos at War’ (1981). In 1997, Quirino was honored as a National Artist of the Philippines for his many years of immense contributions to the research of Philippine history. He died in 1999 aged 89 years old.
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