Varese is the garden city of northern Italy. To discover its true beauty you must walk through the streets, and peep behind villa walls and gates to enjoy an all year round display of plants and fl owers.
The Forum was held at the Ville Ponti in radiant sunshine. Varese is located at the heart of the lake region, and the trips organised for participants took them to a number of lakes, in- cluding Lago Maggiore overlooked by the beautiful monastery of Eremo di Santa Caterina al Sasso and the Visconti Castle Rocca di Angera. A special trip for the press was organised to the Sacro Monte which overlooks Varese.
This year, 82 projects were presented to the participants.These included «Artoonic» from Inarc Progetti, «Anna and the Moods» from Caoz, «Charlie and Lola» from Tiger Aspect Productions, «Chop Socky Chooks» from Aardman, «Newt and the Fifos» from Monster Animation, «Oscar the Balloonist» from 
ASL•Animationsstudio Ludewig, «Santa Queen» from Timoon Animation, «Skunk» from Cartoon Saloon, «Lola & Virginia» from Icon, «The Frightened Family» from Red Kite Animation, «Tom» from Studio Film Bilder, «Trotro» from Storimages and «WWW» from M.B.M. Associati.
Chocolate Spoons
The poster designed by Sergio Belloto provided a wonderful image of the town which is located between the snowy mountain tops of the Alps and the lakes in the valleys.
Let´s not forget the wonderful meals and the chocolate spoons that melted in our coffee.
The Cartoon d´Or took place at the town´s main theatre, and the winner was Sandra Desmazières for her film «Sans Queue ni Tête».
Sylvia del Papa, Editorial Consulting, Raisat Ragazzi
The Forum is an incredible environment in which to work, and represents an essential key to what is new in animation. All the important projects are presented at the Forum. By being there, you know what will be available in the market in two years’ time, and you can even tell in advance what you will be buying.
The Forum is also an opportunity to see those who have become friends over the years.
In 2000, in Gotland in Sweden, my suitcase went missing! However, six days after I came home to Rome, I got it back! Gotland - such a lovely island in the south east of Sweden where the famous director Ingmar Bergman shot his films. I have a wonderful memory of Visby itself, as well as the first and final evenings on the island.
Then in 2001, I sadly didn’t make it to Garmisch. I arrived in Munich wearing just a linen dress and sandals, only to find that my suitcase carrying everything for the mountains had gone missing again. Corinne was at the airport and advised me to go back to Rome. However this time the suitcase was never seen again!
The location for the Forum in Varese, was very beautiful. It was situated next to the Villa Panza de Biumo – the most important Modern Art gallery in northern Italy. One afternoon, I decided not to take the mountain trip outside Varese in order to go with a colleague (and with the permission of Count Panza) to visit the Museum between 4 and 6 pm. It was magnificent! Among the works we saw were the dresses designed by Roberto Capucci, one of Italy’s great couturiers in the 1960’s.
These are just some of my many memories.
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