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Why Watch? Because it’s been far too long since you last watched a really good movie about birds. The Thieving Magpie is the first of Emanuele Luzzati‘s two Oscar-nominated short films, the other being 1973′s Pulcinella. This painter, illustrator and animator had quite the career, designing for the opera and pop concerts as well as making cartoons. There’s even a museum of his work in his native Genoa. This medieval-inspired cartoon is one of his best. The set-up is simple – three kings, who have been warring for a century, decide to take a break and go on vacation together. How do they distract themselves? By killing birds. Yet there’s one winged creature who won’t fall to their arrows, a mischievous magpie that eludes and torments them. It’s set to Rossini’s overture to “La gazza ladra,” also the Italian title of this short. The integration of the music and the animation...

ROME -- The 12th annual Cartoons on the Bay festival gets under way Thursday with its biggest lineup ever -- more than 175 programs from 25 countries.

The festival, which Will Hand out prizes in eight competitive categories before wrapping Sunday, also will present career honors to Canadian animator Gerald Potterton and Japanese artist and designer Fusako Yusaki. South Korea's Akom Prods. will receive the fest's studio of the year honor.

The awards for Yusaki and Akom are part of festival trend toward recognizing contributions from Asia. This year's lineup includes seven productions from Japan, four from South Korea, three from India, two from China and one from Malaysia.

"It is definitely appropriate to pay more attention to the important contributions from Asia," festival founder and artistic director Alfio Bastiancich said.

Western Europe remains well represented at the Salerno-based fest, as do up-and-coming regions Latin America and Eastern Europe.

The festival also announced that it will include a special retrospective of Emanuele Luzzati and Giulio Gianni's 1978 film "The Magic Flute" to celebrate its 30th anniversary.