The view of Genzano di Roma and Lake DiNemi offers the I Castelli Animati festival a special tranquility. Courtesy of I Castelli Animati.

Running from December 1-5, 2004, I Castelli Animati is a small festival tucked into the last possible moments before holiday madness takes over. Nestled in the hills roughly an hour south of Rome is Genzano di Roma, a charming little town and home to I Castelli Animati. Prior to the Renaissance, this hilly area settled around two lakes used to have a castle on each hilltop, hence the festival, and region’s, name — castelli. Founded in the XII and XIII centuries, Genzano is probably best known for the world famous “Infiorata.” Since 1778, huge tapestries created with flower petals recreate famous works of art or elaborate designs on the street leading to the main church during Corpus Domini. Now, Luca Raffaelli, I Castelli’s artistic festival director, is putting Genzano on the animation map by pulling off yet another successful event. This year was the festival’s ninth and brought together a varied and interesting group of animation enthusiasts.

Luca Raffaelli, artistic festival director, is putting Genzano on the animation map by pulling off yet another successful event. Photo credit: Jon Hofferman (left) and courtesy of I Castelli Animati (right).

Program Highlights
One thing I really enjoyed about I Castelli is its unusual way of scheduling the screenings. Special guests and screenings are broken down into bite size pieces across every day of the festival, making the festival programming easy to sit through as something new is always coming on and someone new is always coming up to speak. With so many special guests and 40 shorts in its International competition, the three blocks of programming — morning, afternoon and night — fly by. Plus, it gives one time to think about questions one might want to ask the next day. I think the audience grows more comfortable with guests as they see them every day for a few films instead of just once. By the end of the week a real rapport has built up and makes the guests more approachable.

One of the most unusual special guests was the U.K.’s David McKean. David’s dark, haunting images and use of new technology made him a real breath of fresh air and a new face to see at an animation festival. Congratulations go to the festival staff for seeking out such an original guest. A contributor to The New Yorker, he is also a filmmaker, writer, stop-motion animator, photographer and has worked in advertising, comics (the renowned Sandman series) and with collage. He is a multi-faceted artist who works in many mediums, mixing them together, to create a signature style that is very unique.

The highlight was getting two sneak peeks at his recently completed feature film collaboration with Neil Gaiman, MirrorMask. Mr. McKean, who co-wrote and directed, explained, “It is for everybody — it is not a kid’s film, it is not an adult film — however, while it is for everybody, I don’t think it is for everyone. Not everyone will like it.” But I think, with the absolutely jaw-dropping, stunning visuals, this dark, fairy story of a film will be well worth the price of admission for animation fans.

Taking 17 months to complete, the Sony release transplants viewers to another world following the journey of young Helena as she tries to find the fabled MirrorMask, save her kingdom and return home. A charming speaker David offered everything from advice — “A filmmaker must always keep in mind the point and then get their audience to think that that is very important.” — to musings about Batman: “I never understood Batman. Where was the leap between man and bat? There must have been some missing pages somewhere,” he quipped.