For festival director Luca Raffaeli, two things are crucial to the I Castelli Animati’s success — presenting a variety of animation and letting the audience watch everything. Photo credit: Jon Hofferman.

Raffaeli had organized the festival into roughly four types of sessions — “workshops” with filmmakers, the international competition, the Italian competition and an international showcase. In addition, Annick and Chiaro Magri of Tornino-based Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia presented student films on the first day, and Italian visual effects studios sprinkled examples of their work throughout the program.

“Two things were very important to me,” Raffaeli said. “First, having a variety of animation. And, second, letting the audience sit in their chairs and watch everything in the festival. Otherwise, people have to choose what they’ll lose. At other festivals, I see people watching films with a worried expression, and watching a 25-minute film is terrorizing for them.”

During the day, he divided the films into approximately 20-minute groups having, for example, a set of films in the international competition followed by a showcase or films in the Italian competition. Before each session, Raffaeli introduced the upcoming films and any filmmakers in audience.

“I think it’s important to turn on the lights, to break the silence, to present the films,” he said. “The audience needs to digest and understand.”

Included in the international competition were films that many people predict are current Oscar short animated film contenders: Cedric Babouche’s Imago, Anthony Lucas’ The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello, Bill Plympton’s The Fan and the Flower and John Canemaker’s memoir, The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation. Also in competition were four of the five Annie short subject nominees, John R. Dilworth’s Life in Transition and Igor Kovalyov’s Milch, in addition to The Moon and The Son and The Fan and The Flower.

Argentinean, but London-based filmmaker Oscar Grillo led a jury that gave Belgian animator Jonas Giernaert’s clever urban comedy Flatlife the Grand Prize. Milch earned a special jury prize; Matthew Walzer of the University of Wales took best first film honors for Astronauts and Finnish animator Laura Neuven’s The Last Knit won best European film honors. The Fabrizio Bellocchio Prize for social content went to John Canemaker for The Moon and the Son. The entire list of prizewinners can be found on I Castelli Animati’s website.

But equally interesting were the retrospectives. In addition to guest of honor Peter Lord, the festival honored Isao Takahata who received a career award, and showed four of his films: the heartbreaking A Grave for Fireflies, Only Yesterday, Pom Poko and My Neighbors the Yamadas. Lord previewed 20 minutes from Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, not yet released in Italy, and participated in an on-stage conversation with Mr. Takahata. Also honored were the animation masters Paul Bush; Italian animator Gianluigi Toccafondo; animation historian, teacher and filmmaker John Canemaker; and Oscar-winners Borge Ring and Daniel Greaves, all of whom showed retrospectives of their work.

Included in the international competition were Bill Plympton’s The Fan and the Flower (left) and Anthony Lucas’ The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello. © Plymptoons (left) and © Monster Distributes

Rather than showing only his own films, though, Ring brought commercials made in the ‘60s by John Hubley and Art Babbitt, about which he said, “This is some of the best animation I know. I wanted everyone to see it.” The black-and-white spots included those for Starkist (Charlie the Tuna), Western Airlines (“the only way to fly”), Hamms (“the beer refreshing”) and others. Ring’s Oh, My Darling, Anna & Bella, Run of the Mill were shown at other times so that people could appreciate the lightness of this master’s animated strokes.

“I wanted to have people with a variety of styles and ages,” said Raffaeli. And so he did — from Toccafondo’s sensual animation to Paul Bush’s experiments with time and space to 84-year-old Borge Ring’s exquisite hand drawn characters.

Each morning, two or three guest filmmakers held “workshops” in which they talked about and then presented a selection of films; their films were also shown throughout the festival. Thus, people at the festival, fans, students, teachers and other animators, could learn from the filmmakers by watching films shown during the festival, from their presentations, through questions and answers during the workshops and by talking with them in the lobby, on the sidewalks and in restaurants and cafes during the festival.

The festival began at 9:30 in the morning and lasted until after midnight, but with long breaks for lunch and dinner. In the theater, you might be sitting behind John Canemaker talking with Borge Ring. And, Mr. Takahata might be sitting at the table next to you during lunch. At lunchtime and at dinner, filmmakers shared tables in one of the two designated festival restaurants with other guests and attendees.