Day 2: 5^th of October 2000
The morning began with films like Gianni Lucches' Opus and a 28-minute film by Daniela Trastulli titled Osvaldo Cavandoli. Un artigiano dell'umorismo, Cavandoli is well-known in Italy, and in many parts of the world, for his animated films which are created out of single horizon line, usually white on a solid colour field. Minimalist humor.

Retrospectives of Koji Morimoto and Julian Nott went off today. Koji directs the extravagant science-fiction series Eternal Family, a non-stop bombardment of images and clips of explosions, futuristic television control rooms and one memorable sequence in which a man with his head on fire enters a bathroom, goes immediately to the shower, gets in and turns on the water. A woman then enters the same bathroom, grunting and groaning. She pulls the shower curtain closed and turns on the hot water. She lifts the toilet lid and a baby is in the toilet, head above the water. She gently removes the baby from the toilet and places him on the bathroom floor. She sits on the toilet and continues to grunt and groan. Koji cuts wide and we see the lady on the toilet, the baby on the floor and the man with the burning head jumping around in a scalding hot shower. Koji also directed Please Get the Chicken Insurance.

Julian Nott composes music for Mark Baker and Nick Park movies. The Hill Farm, A Close Shave, The Wrong Trousers and a few other gems. He is a fan of Carter Burwell's musical work for films such as Raising Arizona and Fargo.

In competition today among others were: The Periwig-Maker, by Steffen Schaeffler, and Understanding the Law, a film beautifully and madly designed and directed by Diane Obomsawin for the NFB in Canada. And today, Oscar Grillo remembered his name.

Day 3: 6^th of October 2000
Today began with thunderstorms over Genzano. Real thunderstorms, not an animated film of thunderstorms.

Paul Driessen's retrospective continues with a very shy animator from Holland being introduced into the circus atmosphere of the Cinema Modernissimo by festival director Luca Raffaelli. Paul's Three Misses was nominated this year for an Academy Award. Paul has never before been nominated for the Oscar despite having the strongest body of work of any living animator, certainly the strongest body of work of any independent animator. Later in this day, The End of the World in Four Seasons is screened. This picture has Paul's trademark split screen or separate screens within the screen approach. To Vivaldi's Four Seasons music, a series of interlaced dramas unfold with action from one screen influencing action in another screen. One viewing of Seasons is not enough.

I Castelli Animati's programs all go off in one theatre, the Cinema Modernissimo. The screenings are continuous from 10:00 am until 11:30 pm each day. Commercials, children's films, retrospectives, interviews with international guests and competition screenings just keep on coming interrupted only by the familiar musical theme and the fine M.C. hosting of festival director Luca Raffaelli. There are some projection glitches to be sure, some catcalls from audience members, crying children, cell phone noises and at times the theatre lights may go on during a film. There is a snack bar right outside the theatre's curtained entrance, and two or three bars and pizzerias nearby. If you do not like what is on screen just go away for an espresso and when you return there will be a whole different program underway. Understanding Italian will enhance anyone's visit to I Castelli Animati, but if you speak only English you will still have a good time.

Some highlights in today's Concorso Internazionale include: Village of Idiots (1999) directed by Eugene Fedorenko and Rose Newlove. This picture is beautifully made using Federenko's familiar illustrative styling (his work appears in New Yorker Magazine, including covers). It is a very funny story about Eastern European peasants. Cut-out and drawn animation are used, as well as out-of-focus effects and a very ethnically rich voice narration.