Fortunately, the festival still retains a strong sense of tradition in its programming and entertainment. For almost 75 years, animation has been produced in Croatia, with its famed Zagreb Film studio (started as Duga Film) celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. A special program, "40 Years of the Zagreb Film Animation Studio," spotlighted films made for children. Included were films from the Professor Baltazar series, as well as a number of other short works by Zlatko Grgic, Boris Kolar, Ante Zaninovic, Dragutin Vunak, and Borivoj Povnikovic. Two Zagreb animators were honored with gallery showings of their artwork in various media: Vunak's exhibition focused primarily on works of the past 3 years, while the professional opus of work by Dovnikovic, better known as Bordo, was presented in a showing of his illustrations, comics, and graphic designs from the past 46 years. A retrospective of Macedonian films included 13 short works produced between 1971 and 1989.

Special Programs
Along with more local production, the animations of other countries also were featured in special programs. Five programs of British productions, curated by Pat Raine Webb, covered works from throughout its animation history, while recent American work was the focus of Warner Bros., MTV, Hanna-Barbera and Disney programs. A more marginalized group of artists were featured in a four-day program, "Articulated Light: The Emergence of Abstract Film in America."

Among the other highlights was the presentation of the Life Achievement Award to Caroline Leaf, who is best known for her sand, oil on glass, and scratched animation created during her 20 years at the National Film Board of Canada and elsewhere. Australian film scholar and artist Erik Roberts organized a retrospective screening of Leaf's films, including The Owl Who Married a Goose (1974), The Street (1976), Interview (1979), A Dog's Tale (1986), and Entre Deux Soeurs (Two Sisters, 1990). Later in the week, Leaf and a small group of festival attendees gathered for an informal chat as part of a series entitled "Conversations with the Masters," a regular event at Zagreb that allows 10 to 15 people to get better acquainted with an honored artist. As a special tribute to Leaf, several artists collaborated on a short film entitled Leave a Normal Life, which made its debut at the festival. The film includes visual and aural segments created by Janet Perlman, Derek Lamb, George Griffin and Leaf's other close friends, and features a soundtrack by Peter Gabriel.

Online & Other Judging
Several programs were dedicated to new technologies and their role in the realm of animation. Playing a major role in the festival was the Croatian Academic and Research Network (CARNet), which used the latest technologies to provide access to the festival to World Wide Web users across the planet. I find it fascinating to see how Croatia has embraced the Internet to create a stronger international presence for itself. At one time, the government provided Internet access to its citizens free of charge and many thousands of people made use of public facilities. Now commercial providers have begun service within the country, which changed the nature of the Internet access. Nonetheless, thousands of Croatians and other individuals were able to get detailed information about the festival. By accessing the Zagreb Festival's home page, a viewer could see brief clips of all the films in competition and vote for his or her favorite work. The winner of the Internet competition was Nick Park's A Close Shave (1995). You can see the Zagreb festival's home page at http://www.awn.com or http://animafest.hr.

John Dilworth and Niko Meulemans at the Zagreb Festival Picnic. Courtesy of Maureen Furniss.

Because I will be serving on my first selection committee (for the Ottawa Festival) in a couple of weeks, I was particularly interested in the dynamics of the competition. The Zagreb Festival's selection committee included Gunnar Strøm of Norway, Jill McGreal of the United Kingdom and Ivan Ladislav Galeta of Croatia. The committee selected more than 50 films from 472 submissions and, it seems, there was generally consensus on what works made it into the competition. When questioned about one or two films, committee members did indicate that political reasons necessitated the inclusion of works that otherwise might not have been chosen. With these exceptions, the quality of work submitted was of the same general standard that one sees at most festivals. I often hear the comment that there has not been a real stand-out lately, though Priit Pärn and Janno Poldma's 1895, which won the Grand Prize, seems to have been generally viewed as most worthy of the honor. The Public Prize went to American John Dilworth's crowd-pleaser, Dirdy Birdy (1994) (his Chicken from Outer Space, which got an Oscar nomination earlier this year, and was included in the festival's Hanna-Barbera "What a Cartoon!" screening).