Laura Gonçalves: Last News

Callum McLennan The sixth edition of the Quirino Awards, an annual event dedicated to the promotion of animation in Spain, Portugal and Latin America, saw a triumph for Portuguese cinema, with animations from the country taking home four of the nine awards.  The Quirino Awards also proved a veritable showcase of Portugal’s rich animation history– apt as the event also marked the centenary of animation in Portugal.  The feature film “Nayola,” helmed by Portuguese director José Miguel Ribeiro, walked off with the best feature film award.  The film, a Praça Filmes production, is a moving depiction of three generations of Angolan women grappling with the aftermath of the civil war that devastated their country in the late 20th century. Ribeiro’s first feature, “Nayola,” which premiered in main competition at the Annecy Animation Festival in 2022, is based on the play “A Caixa Preta” by Eduardo Agualusa and Mia Coutode. Its bold color palette, and melding of myth and a female perspective on the traumas of war clearly struck the jury. 

Filmmaker Laura Gonçalves had the idea for an animated short for a few years, stemming from discussions of her uncle whenever she sees her family at a reunion. The Garbage Man (O Homen do Lixo) takes place at the dinner table, as the family gathers to remember Uncle Botão, a garbage man who lived through the Colonial War and emigrated from Portugal to France. Gonçalves was young when her uncle passed away, so she only heard stories about him around the dinner table. For the film, she dove deeper with her family and got a more personal insight into who he was.