Cartoons on the Bays festival director Alfio Bastiancich has announced the 40 short listed titles, which have been chosen to compete for the Pulcinella Awards this year.
He commented on the final selection by saying, The short list of these 40 programmes, all candidates for the Pulcinella Awards 2005, make up five nominations for each of the eight categories. The standard is so high this year that the international Jury will have a difficult task ahead of them choosing the winners! The quality of the production is really at a top level, both for those entries from the majors and those from the independent producers from Europe, America and Asia. In Positano (Italy), buyers, television heads, producers, distributors and creative directors attending the event, will have a complete panorama of animation production throughout the world. These entries reflect the producers attention to the market needs, but also to quality and innovation.
The eight categories are: TV series for Pre-school, TV series for Children, Action & Adventure TV series, TV for All Audiences, Pilots of TV series, Short Films, TV Specials, Social and Educational Programmes. The full list is published on the website of the Festival at www.cartoonsbay.com, but it is worth noting below the presence of some well-known and also new production companies taking part this year.
The Pre-school category has companies like Neptuno Films (Spain) with DOUGIE IN DISGUISE, Astley Baker Davies (U.K.) with PEPPA PIG and Ocon Inc. (Korea) with DIBO THE GIFT DINOSAUR.
In the Children category Nickelodeon (U.S.) will be competing with MY LIFE AS A TEENAGE ROBOT, Walt Disney Television Animation (U.S.) has BRANDY & MR WHISKERS and Millimages (France) has PITT & KANTROP.
For the All Audiences section, Cartoon Network Studios (U.S.) has got two entries short listed THE GRIM ADVENTURES OF BILLY AND MANDY and FOSTERS HOME FOR IMAGINARY FRIENDS.
It will be a close competition in the Action & Adventure category with Disney Channel (U.S.) competing with their title AMERICAN DRAGON: JAKE LONG, Nickelodeon (U.S.) with THE LAST AIRBENDER, Warner Bros Animation (U.S.) with XIAOLIN SHOWDOWN, Rai Fiction (Italy) with THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS and Sip Animation (France) with W.I.T.C.H.
For Educational and Social Programmes some of the production companies competing include the two German ones Filmakademie Baden-Wurttemburg with NO LIMITS and Westdeutscher Rundfunk with ONE, TWO, THREE, ME.
The Pilots of TV series, always a carefully followed category, has entries from BBC Worldwide (U.K.) with THE SECRET SHOW; De Mas & Partners (Italy) with THE BEE-BEES, two entries from France: Ellipsanines THE FARM and Je suis bien contents LILIS ISLAND, and Spains Icon Animation with SANDRA, THE FAIRY-TALE DETECTIVE.
Not least among the categories are the eagerly waited for TV specials including BBC Worldwides THE TALE OF JACK FROST; La Fabriques (France) THE DREAM BIRD and Millimages (France) with THE LITTLE RAINDEER. The Televisio de Catalunya (Spain) will also compete with their entry THE MANAIRONS, A TALE FROM CATALONIA.
Short Films section will see, among other titles, Ireland competing with Cartoon Saloons entry CULIN DUALACH and U.S. with Pixar Animation Studios entry BOUNDIN. In addition to the competitive section, Cartoons on the Bay will also showcase 150 programs representing 20 countries. Within this showcase of the worldwide production of animation, Europe is participating again with 55% of the final line-up.
The Jury Panel for 2005 is made up by Heather Kenyon, Cartoon Network (U.S.), Irene Wellershoff, ZDF (Germany), Meredith Metz, Walt Disney TV Animation (U.S.), Raoul Servais, cartoonist (Belgium) and Mussi Bollini, Rai Tre (Italy).
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
