creating movies under debian?

[Micha Feigin]

I am looking to make small animation movies.
ususally the input is either a bunch of pictures or a layered image.
I want to output it as a movie file and not as an animated gif.
with gimp i couldn't find an option for group open or for writing movie
format (I am not really knowlageble in the formats).
Is there a program that can do something like premier (even if not to the
same level)?
Thanx