Paramount+ Drops ‘South Park: The End of Obesity’ First Look
The special event, debuting today in the U.S. and Canada, sees the town of South Park rocked by the advent of new weight loss drugs; when Cartmen can't get the life-changing medicine, the kids spring into action.
Call for Entries: Big Fake Deep Foot Competition
The mythical Bigfoot and AI-enabled deep fake technology take center stage in the inaugural competition, part of the all-new Animation District at the upcoming 51st Bumbershoot Arts and Music Festival, set for August 31-September 1 in Seattle.
Seattle’s Bumbershoot Returns with New Animation District
Now in its 51st year, the iconic arts and music festival adds a stellar lineup of animated fare for 2024 that includes in-person presentations by ‘Nimona’ director Troy Quane, ‘Ultraman: Rising’ director Shannon Tindle, ‘Across the Spider-Verse’ VFX supervisor Mike Lasker and production designer Patrick O’Keefe, a Big Fake Deep Foot competition, and a host of installations and screenings as part of a robust Visual Arts program happening around the Seattle Center Campus.
ITFS and FMX 2024, Stuttgart, Germany
There were big changes afoot at the International Trickfilm Festival in Stuttgart this year. Annegret Richter, Managing Director of AG Animationsfilms, the German Animation Association, has taken over the reigns as the new Artistic Director. For several years she was head of the animation department at the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animation Films (Dok Leipzig) and she was formally the artistic and managing director at the International Short Film Festival in Dresden.
Hiroshima Animation Season 2024 Selections Revealed
The 2nd edition of the festival unveiled its competition lineup, with 78 films selected from 2,634 entries from 97 countries and regions; the Oscar qualifying event takes place August 14-18 in Hiroshima.
Goppo Animation: Bravely ‘Feeding’ India’s Growing Animation Industry
Debjyoti Saha’s animation studio has grown from producing music videos for Indian rappers like Prabh Deep and DIVINE to bringing its animated anthology series about Indian food culture, ‘Table for One,’ to the upcoming Annecy 2024 MIFA.
Alkemy X Launches New Independent Film Services Division
The Philadelphia-based production company expands its focused support of independent feature film production; new effort to be led by Andrew Greenblatt, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of the Philadelphia Film Society.
Blind Pig Shares ‘Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal’ Animated Sequences
The London-based studio and Minnow Films created the title sequence and montage graphics for Netflix’s new 3-part documentary about an online dating site gone wrong, causing worldwide chaos and divorce.
The Whys and Hows of Marvel Studios’ Acclaimed ‘What If…?’
With awards season on the horizon, director/executive producer Bryan Andrews and writer/executive producer A. C. Bradley share their thoughts about Season 2 of the groundbreaking Disney+ animated series.
‘Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba In Concert’ to Debut This Fall
Check out the trailer for the groundbreaking concert series, based on one of the most popular anime and Japanese manga franchises, debuting this Fall in San Francisco and New York City, featuring an 18-piece live band playing while scenes are projected onto a full-size cinema screen.
Thatchers Cider and Aardman Team for New Campaign
The two companies once again join forces for the next chapter of their pint-sized perfection advertising campaign, which will run across the FA Cup Final and UEFA Euro 2024 tournament as well as the women’s Euro 2025 qualifiers.
Binocular Briefs - Spotlight on Animafest Zagreb
The May 2024 survey of under-the-radar animated shorts currently travelling the festival circuit or new to online viewing takes a special look at five films to keep an eye on at animation’s second oldest festival.
Marvel and ILM Drop ‘What If…? – An Immersive Story’ Trailer
The first-ever interactive Disney+ Original Story, from the world of the animated series ‘What If…?’ will be released May 30 exclusively as a free app on Apple Vision Pro.
SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star to Host Nick’s Kids' Choice Awards 2024
Appearing live from Bikini Bottom, the duo will kick off the 25th anniversary celebration of the ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ series on the upcoming July 13 broadcast as the first ever animated characters to host a full-length awards show.
‘Peppa Pig's Play-A-Long Podcast’ to Stream Exclusively on Audible
With six episodes releasing July 11, the podcast will bring Peppa to the world of audio-first entertainment and encourages families with their preschoolers to embrace life’s adventures.
Autodesk Acquires Wonder Dynamics
The acquisition brings Wonder Studio, a cloud-based 3D animation and VFX solution that uses AI to help streamline 3D character workflows, into Flow, the tech leader’s M&E cloud on Autodesk’s Design and Make platform.
Xilam Animation Greenlights ‘Submarine Jim’ Series
Studio formally moves ahead with the 2D adventure comedy after securing first pre-sales with France Télévisions and Super RTL.
Filmax Secures Sales Rights to Spanish Animated Film ‘The Treasure of Barracuda’
Based on the adventure novel by Llanos Camps, the movie follows a young girl who disguises herself as a boy to join a band of pirates before becoming an invaluable asset when they discover she can read.
‘Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction’ Series to Launch on Crunchyroll
Already adapted as a two-part feature film that released in Japan, the anime will premiere worldwide on the platform later this week.
Pixar Lays Off 175 Employees
The studio just confirmed to AWN that Disney’s ongoing cost-cutting moves have finally hit the venerable animation studio in a big way, as roughly 14% of its employees are being let go.
Chaos Releases V-Ray 6 Benchmark
Company updates its free, standalone app for quick evaluation of V-Ray rendering speeds and capability comparisons of leading CPUs and GPUs.
‘Fairly OddParents: A New Wish’: Unlimited Wishes on a Limited Budget
Co-executive producers Ashleigh Crystal Hairston, Lindsay Katai, Dave Stone, and Daniel Abramovici discuss their all-new series that brings the design aesthetic and bold colors of the iconic 2D original into a 3DCG world that forced them to get really creative and keep close count of every single asset while continuing to deliver all sorts of new wishes that go terribly wrong; debuts today, May 20 on Nickelodeon.
Official Clip, Key Art, Images Drop for ‘Mulligan: Part 2’
The adult animated comedy series from ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ creator Robert Carlock and Sam Means returns for a second season May 24 on Netflix.
Cartoon Network and Max Reveal All-Nigerian ‘Iyanu’ Cast
Lion Forge Entertainment’s adaptation of Dark Horse Comics / YouNeek Studios’ popular graphic novel series ‘Iyanu: Child of Wonder,’ by award-winning Nigerian creator and producer Roye Okupe, is slated for a 2025 release.
First Look Photos, Release Date Revealed for Netflix’s ‘Terminator Zero’
The anime series installment in the popular sci-fi franchise, produced by Skydance Animation and Production IG Studios, streams August 29.
