Cortoons Festival

As much as I've traveled, I'd never visited Rome the Eternal City. I've been to Italy 10 times but never seen the sights of the home of the Roman Empire. So when I got the invitation to do a master class there, I began packing my bags.

I was met at the Rome airport by Alessandro, the head of the 9 year old festival. He's a great guy, and was justly proud of the fact that the festival takes no government money -- it's truly an independent, like me.

They held the festival in a wonderful old cinema from the Mussolini era. The large deco theater was packed with 600 adoring fans for my show. It seems it's very difficult to be an animator in Italy -- apparently Berlusconi is not so hot for animation. Consequently, a lot of young artists move to France, or the States.


On my day off, Alessandro and Noemi took me for a grand tour of Circus Maximus and the Colosseum. The ruins were truly magnificent.



The closing ceremonies were a lot of fun. All the films were excellent. But Alessandro stated that there was a problem with the submissions -- too many dark, depressing films. So come on all you funny Americans, send all those hilarious shorts to Cortoons in Roma -- the Italians are waiting!


I give the Cortoons Festival a B+.