When I reflect on autumn and what it means to me, I think of the season's beauty, fuzzy sweaters, kid's lunch boxes (with plenty of twinkies), and what I look forward to most--the new toons to hit the tube! International Television is this month's focus, so I spoke to the executives that graciously make it happen day in and day out: Clare Kitson, Commissioning Editor for Animation at Channel 4 in the UK; John Coates founder of TVC, in London; Gerry Travers, Marketing and Distribution Manager for Energee Entertainment, in Sydney; Fred Seibert, President, Hanna Barbera and Phil Roman, President, Film Roman, both in Los Angeles.

Crapston Villas. Courtesy of Channel4.

The Yellow Submarine. © TVC-London.

Clare Kitson's top 10 picks...OK, she couldn't resist--12 picks....

1. Some Like It Hot by Billy Wilder
2. The Major and the Minor by Billy Wilder
3. One, Two, Three by Billy Wilder (a big Wilder fan as you see)
4. Singin' In the Rain by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen
5. The Lady-Killers by Alexander Mackendrick (the only British entrant, how sad)
6. The Lady With the Dog by Joseph Heifitz
7. No End by Krzysztof Kieslowski
8. The Street by Caroline Leaf
9. The Big Snit by Richard Condie
10. The Tale of Tales by Yuri Norstein
11. The Wrong Trousers by Nick Park
12. The Cow by Alexander Petrov

John Coates'...

"We grew up at TVC making TV commercials--nearly 1,500 of them-- and it wasn't until we made The Yellow Submarine that I realized that it was really fun to entertain people. By Christmas this year, we will have completed one cinema feature, two TV features, and thirteen half-hour TV specials in the past fifteen years. Hopefully they will have entertained millions of people around the world and we have certainly had a lot of fun making them."

1. The Go Between by Joseph Losey
2. Au revoir les enfants by Louis Malle
3. Blow Up by Michelangelo Antonioni
4. North by Northwest by Alfred Hitchcock
5. Casablanca by Michael Curtiz
6. Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa
7. Pinocchio by Walt Disney
8 The Man Who Planted Trees by Frederic Back
9. Granpa by Dianna Jackson
10. The Wrong Trousers by Nick Park