At our third Forum we introduced the Croissant Show that we are so familiar with today.
Florence is one of Europe´s architectural jewels. We were based in a magnifi - ciant Florentine villa in the Tuscan countryside, where we welcomed 300 parti- cipants, during Indian summer weather, against a magnifi cent backdrop. But the town proved tempting. Indeed, a number of broadcasters found it irresisti- ble and played truant during some of the project presentations.
So, for the following year, we decided we would organise tourist excursions ourselves…
We had 60 projects,
including the feature fi lm «Le Monde est un Grand Chelm», produced by Dora Benousilio and Gilbert Hus, «Cédric» from Dupuis, «Cacochémus» (later called «Pandora and Platon») from Artoon, «Arsène Lupin» from France Animation, and many more which have since been broadcast across Europe.
Corto Maltese by Pratt
This was the year we decided to hold the Cartoon d´Or during the closing evening. The fi rst Cartoon d´Or had been awarded in June 1991 at Annecy to Nick Park for «Creature Comforts». In 1992, the Cartoon d´Or was awarded in a Florence theatre to Daniel Greeves for his fi lm «Manipulation».
For our poster, Hugo Pratt designed a stunningly handsome Corto Maltese, in front of the beautiful church of Santa Maria Novella.
Jakob Stegelmann, Producer and editor-in-chief, Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR)
The birthplace of Dante and Michel angelo played host to the Cartoon Forum in 1992. A few buses were enough to take the entire animated crowd outside Florence, to the Villa where the projects were presented. These were the days of the small Cartoon Forums. Long before the slick presentations and huge audiences of today’s meetings. A friendly artist with a few drawings and a synopsis was enough, but that didn’t stop us from discussing the projects with fire and inspiration - as well as the somewhat dim future of animation. Would European animation ever be able to compete? Was it all a just beautiful dream? Of course not.
Walking through the streets of Florence after one of those uplifting dinners where animation, great food and intoxicating wine came together, I walked by the magical showroom of a Ferrari dealer and once again dreamt of getting behind the wheel and driving this state-of-the- art technical marvel - this time through the city’s 15th-century streets. The meaning was clear and I couldn’t help seeing Florence, Dante, Michelangelo and Ferrari as a symbol of the unique challenge for animation then - and now: to bring the classic qualities of the arts into the modern world, without surrendering all virtues to clichés and the constriction of low budgets.
And the Cartoon Forum, still fl edgling at the time, had already created its role. It would give us new memories each year of a different place and its culture, matched by new, surprising projects and culinary delights. Every year a new step on the ladder. Every year a whole bouquet of great Forum memories, even if I couldn’t take the Ferrari with me.
site by un pas plus loin