‘18 Months,’ ‘Porque Hoy Es Sábado’ Earn Oscar Qualification With Animayo Gran Canaria Award Wins

Animayo Gran Canaria has announced the winners of its 21st edition, with Paulo García and Natalia Gouvea’s stop-motion short 18 Months taking the festival’s Grand Jury Award, and Alice Eça Guimarães’s Porque hoy es sábado (Because today is Saturday) winning the Animación Con Ñ award, dedicated to Spanish-language film in competition.

The two awards are particularly significant because Animayo Gran Canaria – La Isla de Mi Vida is an Oscar-qualifying festival in both categories. Spain’s only double-qualifying animation festival, in fact.

This year also marked a milestone for the Spanish event, which was added to ASIFA-Hollywood’s Annie Awards Qualifying Festival List, making it one of a select group of festivals whose winners can qualify for consideration at both the Oscars and the Annie Awards.

According to the festival, nearly 2,000 films from 78 countries were submitted for consideration. Seventy-five shorts were selected for the final competition.

18 Months, inspired by real events, follows a couple’s journey toward parenthood and was praised by the jury for its emotional storytelling and craftsmanship. Porque hoy es sábado earned recognition for its intimate portrait of motherhood and everyday caregiving responsibilities.

Other major winners included Only Rats, which won both best indie short and the Social Awareness Award, Pigeons for production design, Gauze for emotional impact, and Pobre Marciano for narrative quality.

The festival’s international jury was headed by animation veteran Tony Bancroft, the co-director of Mulan and one of the key figures of Disney’s 1990s animation renaissance. Other notable guests included Pixar animator and storyteller Andrew Gordon, Skydance Animation character supervisor Sarah Macdonald, veteran production designer Alan Bodner, ASIFA-Hollywood vice president Brooke Keesling, and visual effects supervisor Arslan Elver. The festival hosted more than 40 invited guests from studios including Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks, Warner Bros., Skydance Animation, Framestore, Blur Studio, and Industrial Light & Magic, alongside a program of masterclasses, workshops, portfolio reviews, and recruitment sessions.

Animayo Gran Canaria – La Isla de Mi Vida Winners:

Grand Jury Award
18 Months — Paulo García & Natalia Gouvea (U.S.)

Best Animated Short Film with Ñ
Porque hoy es sábado — Alice Eça Guimarães (Portugal/France/Spain)

Best Visual Effects
Azimuth — Martin Bluy, Cassandre Cinier, Chloé Coudray, Thomas Courtois, Mathis Giraudeau, Damien Lagadeuc, François-Clément Michez, Thomas Teisseire (France)

Best Comedy
The Undying Pain of Existence — Oscar Jacobson (Germany)

Best Stop Motion
My Gut Friend — José Manuel Lo Bianco, Mariano Andrés Bergara (Argentina)

Best Student Short Film
Chère Fin — Khéma Cousin, Lien Franckel, Laora Le Boursicot, Alissende Masson, Joséphine Mounier, Clément Saden (France)

Best Production Design
Pigeons — Julien M. Wagner, Amos Sussigan, Timo von Gunten (U.S.)

Best CG
Blu’s — Rajesh PK (India)

Best Independent Short Film
Only Rats — Paz del Carre (Spain)

Most Emotionally Impactful Short Film
Gauze — Noran Fikri Alezabi, Nicholas Arujah, Xinyue Ma, Yulin Yue, Xiaonan Zhou (France)

Best 2D
Cursed — Marion Boitelle, Leïla Bouguerch, Myriam Brandao Serseri, Ashe Daniel, Margaux Deculty, Andrea Mamessier Degrange, Nicolas Paoli, Alisson Pigerol, Marie Seve (France)

Special Mention for Best Production
Tears of the Mountain — Luke Ashworth, Ange Yajima, Yehor Bondarenko, Alp Kurdoglu, Romane Talva (France)

Special Mention for Student Short Film
Love & Gold — Connor Van Dyke (U.S.)

Special Mention for Best Stop Motion
Adiós — José Prats (U.K.)

Social Awareness Award
Only Rats — Paz del Carre (Spain)

Best Narrative Quality
Pobre Marciano — Alex Rey (Spain)

Best Video Game Cinematic
Divinity – Cinematic Announcement Trailer — Maxime Luere, Larian Studios (Belgium)

Best Advertising
OVO – Power Struggle — Réalité (U.K.)

Best Music
Addicted To It — Nigel Tierney, Federico Heller, Jeff Marx, Andrew Hawkins (U.S.)

Audience Award
Bestias de la Muerte — Sandra Powers (Mexico)

Youth & Children’s Audience Award
There Once Was a Tiger — Dmitry Mosyagin, Marina Verik (Russia)