“Chinchipe” wins the first RTVE–Quirino Awards Talent Prize

Image from the project Chinchipe.

• On International Animation Day, RTVE and the Quirino Awards present their first Talent Prize to the project Chinchipe, by Arriate Studio (Spain) and Matte CG (Ecuador).
• The €25,000 prize will fund a six-minute children’s short film in mixed 2D/3D technique, which will be available on RTVE Play.
• The story of Persi, a girl who tries to grow the last tomato seed in a city without sun, is also the seed of a future 26-episode series.

Coinciding with International Animation Day, Chinchipe, by Spanish studio Arriate Studio and Ecuadorian studio Matte CG, wins the first RTVE–Quirino Awards Talent Prize for Best Animated Short Film Project, worth €25,000.

International Animation Day is celebrated worldwide on 28 October, commemorating the first public screening of Émile Reynaud’s Théâtre Optique in Paris in 1892. The Quirino Awards and RTVE chose this date to celebrate the animation that is still to be made: a project in development, born between two shores, which now has the means to reach the screen.

The decision closes the first edition of this call, created by RTVE and the Quirino Awards to boost the production of Ibero-American animated short films. The prize money will go entirely towards producing the short film, under the supervision of RTVE, which will broadcast it at least on RTVE Play.

Chinchipe is a six-minute short film in mixed 2D/3D technique, aimed at children aged 6 to 11. It tells the story of Persi, an eight-year-old girl who lives in the depths of a megacity that sunlight never reaches. There, food is 3D-printed and plants are an almost forgotten memory. On her birthday, her friend Mun gives her the last tomato seed in the world. Persi tries thermal blankets, hot pipes and even a sun projected on a screen, but the seed only sprouts when she discovers that the warmth it needs lies in the people around her.

“We can’t think of a better way to celebrate International Animation Day than helping a new short film see the light. With this prize we want Ibero-American short film projects to have a real path to the screen. Chinchipe is a co-production between two shores, with a story designed for children and a world that can go beyond the short,” said Silvina Cornillón, director of the Quirino Awards.

The project is written by María Luquero, who also directs it, and by Fran Lobón, art director. Cristina Fernández is executive producer for Arriate Studio, while Juan Fernando Terán, executive producer, and Andrés Aguilar, line producer, represent Matte CG. Arriate Studio, based in Cádiz, is a recently founded studio whose founders have worked on productions such as Pocoyo, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and Tad, the Lost Explorer. Matte CG, founded in Quito in 2005, has more than 2,000 projects to its name, including its collaboration with Marvel on the series Hit-Monkey.

“We want to bring to life a story that is small in length but big in intention: a luminous story inside a city without sun,” said María Luquero and Cristina Fernández.

The producers plan to complete financing in 2027 and start production in the summer of that year, aiming to begin its festival run and distribution in 2028. The short film is also the gateway to a wider world: the team is developing a children’s series of 26 seven-minute episodes, Persi and the Impossible Seed, in which the protagonist travels to the surface in search of the sun.