* (humming & piano) (mild hum of tanks) (Footsteps in rubble) (Dogs barking) (dogs whining) (Folk instrumental music on Panduri) (pig snorts) (clucking) * (put put of engine) * * (Magic Flute by Mozart plays) * (Children's voices, singing, playing, laughing) * (Folk instrumental Music) (murmur of crowd) (murmur of crowd) (drums and music) (applause) PAUL BUSH: This is um, quite the most extraordinary festival I've been to, it's very unusual, I think it must be unique.

It's a festival in a... church, in the monastery complex, that's organized by a bishop, who loves animation.

In the cinema, we've got people of all ages, grandmothers and little children running around, it makes it a little bit difficult as a filmmaker to know quite what one should choose to show and what one should speak about, but I just love the atmosphere, that there's- it does feel like I'm a part of the family and a lot of that comes from the bishop and his warmth and his personality.

* (hiss of the rain) (Dogs barking) (birds chirping) (Rooster crows) (chatter) * (Upbeat music) (cheering, applause) MICHAEL DUDOK DE WIT: I am here with my wife we felt very quickly that it's not purely about animation here, that it's about people meeting each other, any festival can say that but this is special.

I didn't feel insecure coming here, I knew that I would be totally safe, even though I knew I would be near the border of a conflict zone or an unclear zone.

Um I was- You know there are many festivals and I receive invitations but I don't have the time to go to all of them.

But I knew very very little about this country and I was curious also because of the setting, it's a bishop inviting me, that's highly unusual, and that it would be a small festival, so intimate where everybody can sit together watching the same screening, I find it very attractive.

The big festivals are good for meeting lots of people, but the small festivals are more human and more like being a family together and it turned out to be even better than I expected.

(singing) (Children talking in background) FERNANDO GARLITO: When you teach don't be afraid to share.

I used to say to my friends, that when I know something, that nobody knows, I'm the unique person in the world, that knows something, the first thing I do is to tell to someone, because after that, I'm equal to everybody and I should go ahead and try to know something new again, that nobody knows.

You grow up like that and you make mistakes, mistakes is good to learn.

(talking in background) (Children talking in background) (Camera shutter clicks) (Instrumental Music - Panduri) (children making sound effects) * DUDOK DE WIT: Sometimes I get an E-mail out of the blue, from someone I've never met before, from a country where I've never been and they write to me saying we've just seen your film and we were very moved by your film, it reflects an experience I've had myself, and they write a letter to me which is so moving, and so personal and then you know what real awards are, I mean that is the real award, an Oscar is good publicity for your film and you very, you're very grateful for that I'm absolutely grateful, I don't just throw it away, but when you get personal witnesses, I mean, really really moving from a young person or the old person, you know, gosh you know why you're making films.

BUSH: I think, for me the importance of having kind of art events in areas where there's been conflict or is conflict is to show that there's another way of life, a number of times I've been to the festival in Hiroshima and, of course, they want to talk a lot about the bombing in 1945 and the city is kind of memorial to that time and yet for me the important thing is that they put on an animation festival there, they have art events, it's no good talking about peace, you have to show people the advantages of peace, so of course we know the horrors of war, but you have to show what peace can offer people.

You know, peace can offer people an art and culture, music, it can offer people, obviously, different standards of life, but it's got to be real things, and I think art is one of those real things, that we as a society can appreciate, but is a kind of product of peace, of peaceful living.

(Audience murmuring) (singing) (applause) (talking in background) - We will drink the wine, a special wine.

It is made in Portugal, Portuguese grapes, but in a cave that belongs to a British emissary.

(laughter) (Crowd murmuring) (singing continues) (engine humming) (pitter patter of rain)