Special awards were given for graphics, to Japan's Four Seasons of Pepperon (a TV special produced by NHK Educational corporation and directed by Mitsumosa Anno); for animation to the UK's The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies and Mrs. Tittle Mouse (a special produced by TV Cartoons Ltd. and directed by Dave Unwin from a tale by Beatrix Potter); for background scenery to Belarus' Home Sweet Home (a pilot produced by Validia and directed by Vitaly Bakunovic and Susan Sivachov).

The Fairy Tales section showed previews of the forthcoming Disney extravaganza, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (exciting, as usual), an upcoming Italian feature, The Blue Arrow, directed by Enzo D'Alò and designed by Palolo Cardoni (a very promising film for children, with nice drawings and a very good music score by Paolo Conte), and a cinematic version of Prokofieff's Peter and the Wolf, directed and produced by George Daugherty, with characters designed and created by Chuck Jones (a little disappointing).

Children and Violence
During the festival, a UNESCO sponsored conference about children and violence was held. At the end, some guidelines were issued, aimed not at limiting creativity, but "to be a challenge to find new ways of telling stories, catch adventures and portray a character". Among these guidelines: plot conflicts should find a positive solution in each episode of a series; conflicts and violence should be expressed in a humorous and playful way; animated cartoons for small children should avoid, as much as possible, any violence--physical or psychological, explicit or implicit; violence, if present, should be justified by the plot; violence shouldn't be presented as a viable solution for a problem. It is true that virtually each and every educator in Europe is currently complaining about violence on television, and that it is going to be rejected in almost all children's programs. This could be a problem in global markets, as there are actual differences among audiences. Stanford Blum, President and CEO of the US-based Imagination Factory, explains that, "In Europe, they don't want violence. In Japan, it's key. You either have to do one type of show or the other."

Last but not least, Amalfi brought out some good news about Italian animation. As I noted above, SACIS and RAI are getting more and more involved with animation production and distribution. Giuseppe Laganà is already at work on a series based upon the popular Italian comic book star, Lupo Alberto (Albert the Wolf); pilots have been commissioned from Laganà (Arturo and Malik), Bruno Bozetto (The Spaghetti Family), Maurizio Forestieri (The House of Decius), Enzo D'Alò and Paolo Zaniboni (Steam Rail), Pier Luigi De Mas (Goose Pimples), Guido Manuli (Gno Gno and Go Duck); Manuli is also working on a project for a comedy-horror feature film. It is a great start for a broadcaster that had scorned Italian animation for 30 years--and for an industry that has suffered for too long from a lack of a home market.