Jacques-Rémy Girerd, representing Folimage (speaking on the right) received a Studio of the Year honor for this company from festival director Alfio Bastiancich.

The major award winner among the programs in competition was CinéGroupe’s polished sci-fi comedy, Tripping the Rift (Canada, 2003), which won Pulcinella Awards for Best Program of the Year and Best TV Series for Teenagers and Adults. The CGI series was cited for its outstanding script and an exotic cast of memorable characters. The computer animated Zoé Kezako (Sparkling, France, 2003) also earned two Pulcinellas: Best Character of the Year and Best TV Series for Children and showed how effectively CGI could be used at producing child-like 2D imagery.

Aardman Animations not surprisingly took the Pulcinella for Best European Program for Creature Comforts (U.K. 2003). It is, of course, based on Nick Park's classic short, which had also inspired a series of popular British TV adverts for British Gas. The award for Best TV Movie or Special was given to Janet Perlman's hilarious Penguins Behind Bars (Hulascope for Cartoon Network, Canada, 2003), a parody of American women-behind-bars films of the 1950s, which she co-wrote with Derek Lamb. The National Film Board took a co-producer credit, though its involvement was actually quite minimal.

Konstantin Bronzit’s The God (Melnitsa, Russia, 2003), cited for its clever use of 3D animation and great comedic timing in winning a Pulcinella for Best Short Film, is a real tour-de-force which bodes well for the filmmaker’s future. Other Pulcinellas went to Millimage’s Corneil & Bernie (France, 2003) for Best TV Series for All Audiences, DECODE Entertainment‘s Franny’s Feet (Canada, 2003), named Best TV Series for Infants, with special mentions given to Bill Plympton’s Guard Dog (USA, 2003), for its unique personal style and outrageous humor, and to Quipos’ Pimpa’s Magic Day (Italy, 2003), in part, for its bold and colorful art direction.

As appropriate for a festival devoted to TV animation, there was a separate competition for Best Pilot open only to Italian entries. The winner was Stefi’s World from The Animation Band.

New this year is the UNICEF-Campania Region Prize, which was given to Gayatari Rao’s Raju and I from India’s Animagic Special Effects, for courageously dealing with difficult and up-to-date social issues and problems such as the exploitation of child labor. It also falls within a strong tradition of socially conscious animation, which has long been one of the strengths of Indian animation. Special mention was also given to Italy’s Hocus and Lotus Adventures, which is shown on Rai as part of an innovative initiative to help teach foreign languages to preschool children.

Harvey Deneroff is a freelance writer and head of the London-based Animation Consultants.