Cartoons On The Bay 2024: 28 years promoting Italian and global animation

Cartoons On The Bay, the traditional International Festival of Animation, Transmedia and Meta-Arts promoted by Rai and organized by Rai Com inaugurated its 28th edition in the Italian city of Pescara. "The festival has such a long life because fortunately behind it there is the Italian public television, the Rai, so there is a security of continuity that other festivals do not have. So it is a fortune, an advantage," explained Roberto Genovesi, Artistic Director of COTB to Señal News. "On the other hand, it was born in 1996 with the aim of monitoring the evolution of the market and the scenarios and therefore, for this reason, every year it changes according to what is recorded around it," he continued.

Every year, COTB choses a different country as a guest and in this edition, Spain was selected. "We have adopted this formula for a few years to have a guest country for each edition. The choice is not made by chance, it is made by analyzing the market," commented Genovesi. "We decided to have Spain as a guest country precisely because Spain, from our point of view, represents a European point of reference for animation and at the same time an important dialogue partner of exchange of information and co-production. So for us it is very important to have both televisions and different and multimedia broadcasters, but also Spanish directors and creators," he said.

Another relevant point of the 28th edition of Cartoons On the Bay is the presence of recognized professionals from the Italian and International Animation arena such as Oscar and Emmy nominated documentary director and producer Leslie Iwerks and veteran former Disney director and animator John Musker and Spanish comic book author Juanjo Guarnido. "We have brought important characters from the animation world everywhere, because Cartoons on the Bay is itinerant. Usually every three years we change location. This year we renewed our vocation because having John Musker, Leslie Iwerks and Juanjo Guarnido together for us is a pleasure," he concluded.

PITCH ME! CONTEST
The Pitch Me! 2024 contest was the main focus of the day. The juries Agnès Bizzaro, Content Director Cartoon Springboard, Sara Cabras, Producer of TV series and cartoons Direction of Rai Kids, Elena Capparelli, Director of Rai Play e Digital has premiered three best projects presented by students from different Institutions and Universities. The first place was for "Zilìa". "It's a very awesome family story with elements of the nature, like the sound of the waves, the wind and the sea, and it's a very different and strong topic in a poetic, very poetic story," said Agnès Bizzaro, Content Director Cartoon Springboard, who gave the prize and invited the winners to participate at Cartoon Springboard that will take place in October in Madrid.

The second award was for "Night Shift" while the third place was for "La mamma di Mario Papà".

By Romina Rodriguez from Pescara