A presentation of the joint projects on Animation Studies of the University of Padua and the Cinit-CIneforum Italiano will be held at the Regione Veneto Space in the Hotel Excelsior.

 On Friday, August the 29th, the Regione Veneto Space in the Hotel Excelsior of the Lido di Venezia will host a panel about research and teaching projects on animated films, promoted by the Department of Cultural Heritage of the University of Padova and by the Cinit- Cineforum Italiano, a national cultural association focusing on cinema.

 In particular, the event will present the proceedings of the conference “Animation and Italy: authors, theories and state of the art”, which took place on May 29-30, 2014 and was co-organized by the DAMS degree courses (Arts, Music and Entertainment) of the University of Padua, the Department of Cultural Heritage, the Cinit and the S.A.S. – Society for Animation Studies.

The new website “Animata – Information and Research Network on Animation” will debut during the panel. It is a collection of scholarly resources (such as papers, bibliographies and announcements of events) which will be collectively managed by animation scholars, in order to guarantee reliability and quality of the contents.

 Such initiatives are part of innovative research efforts that the Department of Cultural Heritage is undertaking in the field of animation; as a part of the same project, an English-laguage course of History of Animation will start in October, 2014, for the students of the Master’s Degree in Theory of Entertainment and Multimedia Production (Scienze dello Spettacolo e della Produzione Multimediale).

 The project has been supported by the efforts of Giovanna Valenzano, Director of the Department of Cultural Heritage; Rosamaria Salvatore, President of the DAMS Master’s and Bachelor’s degree courses; Alberto Zotti Minici, Associate Professor of History of Cinema and Photography; Marco Bellano, Adjunct Professor of History of Animation; Massimo Caminiti, President of the Cinit; Marco Vanelli, Editor in chief of the cinema journal “Cabiria”; Paolo Kirschner, webmaster and designer of “Animata”.

Marco Vanelli, Alberto Zotti Minici, Marco Bellano and Paolo Kirschner will participate in the panel.

For the first time in Italy, the Conference in Padua offered to Italian animation scholars an opportunity to meet and share knowledge, using Italian animation as a springboard for discussion. “Cabiria” no. 177 hosts the special insert “Laboratorio: l’Italia animata. I precursori”, which publishes four conference papers focusing on the beginnings of Italian animation: “C’era una volta l’animazione italiana”, by Carlo Montanaro; “Un’italiana a Parigi: Leontina ‘Mimma’ Indelli”, by Giannalberto Bendazzi; “Burattini animati. Le avventure di Pinocchio nel cinema animato italiano”, by Anna Antonini and Chiara Tognolotti; “Sogni di bimbo a passo uno. L’animazione nel film muto italiano di propaganda bellica (1915-1917)”, by Denis Lotti. The upcoming issue no. 178 of “Cabiria” will host more conference proceedings.