The initiative, backed by IBERMEDIA Programme, announces a new line of grants as well as a new five-member Assessment Committee and Consultancy.
IBERMEDIA NEXT, the initiative backed by IBERMEDIA Programme and financed with funds from NextGenerationEU, announced a new line of grants to support the creation of digital animation projects or real image projects that include a high percentage of animation.
After launching a website and call for proposals website on May 12, coinciding with the sixth annual award ceremony of the Quirino Prizes of the Iberian American Animation League in San Cristóbal de la Laguna (Tenerife), IBERMEDIA NEXT attended Annecy 2023 last week. To promote connections among professionals, the initiative organized different networking activities, such as the business breakfasts in the festival’s technology area, and information sessions, such as a lecture on Next Lab Generation. As part of the conference, a meeting explaining the grants was held in the Salle Verdi, which was followed by a networking cocktail. While bringing together the professional community of Ibero-America and Italy, IBERMEDIA NEXT revealed the Assessment Committee and Consultancy.
After evaluating the proposal made by the Quirino Prizes and the Ibero-American Animation League, the Intergovernmental Committee of the IBERMEDIA Programme selected five professionals to make up the Assessment Committee and Consultancy.
These specialists are Luís Belerique (Portugal), Lead Artist at Tequila Works; Rosario Carlino, from Argentina, CEO of OSA Estudio, animation teacher at ENERC and in the Blaise Pascal University; Alejandra Luzardo, from Venezuela, manager for Innovation – Creative Economy & Public Policy IADB; Raúl García, from Spain, who began his career in animation working on well-known American series and films, including 9 years at Walt Disney working on titles such as Aladdin, and, as director and producer, member of the Academy of Hollywood, and the cinematic arts and sciences Academy of Spain, the Writers Guild of America and ASIFA-Hollywood; and Aïda del Solar, from Peru, teacher in Gobelins L'École de L'image (Paris) and art and creative director at CNAM-ENJMIN (Angoulême).
One of the main functions of the Committee is to ensure that these grants are awarded using a competitive system, in keeping with the principles of objectivity, transparency, equal opportunity, non-discrimination and public dissemination. To this end, the Committee will evaluate the projects first individually and then as a group before final decisions have been made.
Each project selection will be analyzed by the entire Committee. They will craft proposals for possible partners, sponsors, or investors, among other considerations of interest. In addition, each of the projects selected will benefit from follow-up consulting sessions held online with the tutor assigned in 2023 and 2024.
A Peruvian director and screenwriter based in Paris, del Solar holds a degree in cinema and animation from the National School of Dramatic Arts (ENSAD, Paris) and in screenwriting from La Fémis (Paris). She has more than 20 years of experience training artists in visual narrative, cinema and interactive media. She is currently a teacher at Gobelins L'École de L'image (Paris) and an art and creative director at CNAM-ENJMIN (Angoulême).
Manager in Innovation and Creative Economy in the IADB. Luzardo’s work spans various fields of the entertainment and disruptive technologies sectors. She has been a pioneer in implementing regional dialogue on public policies with an intersectoral approach towards creative industries. Her recent publications are bestsellers in the orange economy, such as “Video games are not a game” or “Behind the cameras: creativity and investment for Latin America and the Caribbean”.
After concluding his Astronomy studies in Oporto, Belerique changed course and focused on visual arts, mainly on 3D modelling. He has worked in different fields, such as dissemination of scientific knowledge, artistic education, illustration and comics. Since 2011, he has worked as a video game artist at Tequila Works, where he took part in projects such as Deadlight (Environmental artist), RiME (Lead artist) and GYLT (Concept and 3D Artist).
He began his career in TV series such as The Flintstones and The Smurfs. He has contributed animation to successful films such as Asterix and Caesar’s Surprise, Around the World with Alvin and the Chipmunks and In Search of the Enchanted Valley. His work in Who framed Roger Rabbit? helped him land a job at Disney, where he worked for 9 years on the animation of characters such as Aladdin. He is a member of the Film Academies of Hollywood and of Spain and of the Writers Guild of America and ASIFA Hollywood.
Carlino studied cinema and TV at the National University of Cordoba. For more than 15 years, she has worked in animation. In 2013, she founded Osa Estudio, where she produces and directs series and short films. Her productions have been selected and received prizes at international festivals (Annecy, Prix Jeunesse Internacional, Quirino Prizes). She teaches animation at the National Cinema School ENERC (Buenos Aires) and in the Blaise Pascal University (Cordoba).
This first line of grants from IBERMEDIA NEXT will be presented to prototypes, teasers, pilots, short films or video clips with the minimum length of five minutes that make use of new technological tools for animation or open-source in their development. The final result of these pieces will be traditional audiovisual content in Virtual Reality (VR), Extended Reality (XR) or Augmented Reality (AR). Projects in digital animation or in real image are eligible as long as they include at least 75% of animation in their footage.
Submissions are due by August 21, 2023. For more information on applying click here or visit IBERMEDIA NEXT.
Source: IBERMEDIA NEXT
