Cartoons on the Bay--The International Festival of Animation: Films, TV Series and Fairy Tales is the English name of an Italian international festival held April 15-18 in Amalfi, Italy. The city itself is a tiny, beautiful and colorful town on the Mediterranean coast 60 km south of Naples. It was the festival's first edition and it's artistic director, Alfio Bastiancich ( a young veteran of animation festivals and animation scholarship), has pointed out the novelty of its focus. "There is no other festival like this," he told The Hollywood Reporter, "since the other festivals, like Annecy, Ottawa and Hiroshima, focus their attention on auteur films, and not so much on individual TV production."

Which actually is the point, since high quality animated entertainment for television is the great novelty of today's global market, as opposed to the situation of just 5-6 years ago, when basically only two forms of animation existed (besides commercials): auteur films and TV series.

Giampaolo Sodano, SACIS' Chairman, added: "With animation occupying 20% of the audiovisual market and becoming a growing trend, as of yet there had never been a festival that analyzed and rewarded the very best in TV cartoons." Sodano was the big muscle behind the festival; his company is the distribution branch of the government-owned Italian broadcaster RAI, and his decision in favor of animation shows a strong determination to get involved with it--finally, after 30 years of absent-mindedness.

Insektors © Fantome

Pulcinella, Pulcinella ...
There were 56 films in competition representing 14 countries; 52 more were screened in the out of competition Showcase section. The Golden Pulcinella for Best Character was awarded to Italy's Franceso Tullio Altan for Pimpa (a naive red spotted dog, created 20 years ago for a comic strip aimed at children; the 1995 pilot for a TV series is directed by Enzo D'Alò). The other Golden Pulcinella went to France's Fantôme Animation (Renato and Georges Lacroix) for their 1995 series Insektors, as Best Programme All Round. It is a 26 x 13' series using 3-D computer animation, that was honored "for its technical innovation in computer graphics, for the beauty of its images, for its rhythm and editing, for its sense of humor, for the quality of its soundtrack and for the originality of the characters."

The Silver Pulcinella for the Best Programme for Infants went to France Animation (Jean-Luc Morel, Daniel Orgeval) for The Babalous, a 65 x 5' Franco-Canadian series. The Silver Pulcinella for the Best Children's Programme (6-12 Years) went to Ralph Hibbert Entertainment (Graham Ralph, James Stevenson) for The Forgotten Toys. This was a 25 minute British TV special that was, to this writer's taste, actually the best film of the festival, masterfully crafted, tender, sensitive, very well written and very well designed.

The Silver Pulcinella for the Best Programme for Adolescents went to France Animation (Pascal Morelli) for Nighthood, a 26 x 26' series starring the classic feuilleton character Arsène Lupin. The Silver Pulcinella for the best program for adults went to Klasky Csupo (Eva Almos) for Duckman, the 13 x 24' American series. The Silver Pulcinella for Best Family Programme went to Bruno Bozzetto Productions (Bruno Bozzetto) for the Spaghetti Family pilot, a humorous description of everyday life in a typical Italian family of today.