This year's SITGES Festival Internacional de Cinema de Catalunya featuresseveral animation related events including a short film competition, thepresentation of Hayao Miyasaki's PRINCESS MONONOKE, and tributes to OsamuTezuka and Will Vinton. The festival takes place Wednesday, October 6 -Saturday, October 16 in Barcelona, Spain. For more information Tel. 34 93419 3635, or visit www.sitges.com/cinema.
Ray Harryhausen will appear at the REZNHEDZ Model and Toy Show at theHillside Holiday Inn just outside Chicago on October 9 and 10. The ChicagoInternational Film Festival is also sponsoring two events in conjunctionwith the REZNHEDZ show. On Thursday, October 7 the festival will show JASONAND THE ARGONAUTS and GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD, and on Sunday, October 10they will have a tribute to Ray Harryhausen. The tribute will include clipsfrom the movies, and culminate in Ray receiving an Award from the Film
Paris, France-based Salsa Distribution has acquired the Latin Americantelevision distribution rights to the half-hour television special GOGWANA.Produced by London-based AARGH! Animation Ltd. for S4C, and directed byDeiniol Morris, GOGWANA is based on THE GOGS, the Stone Age family depictedin the claymation television series. In the special, after an earthquakedestroys the Gogs' cave, the family goes in search of a new home, and,along the way, encounters pygmies, dinosaur air-balloons, and pygmy-piloted
New York City-based THE ATTIK has completed two :30 spots for Sol Beer andagency Amster Yard. In "Disco" a beer acts as a disco ball, emittingstrobing lights. In "Rock N Roll" the can emits electrical charges,creating a pulsing energy field. James Sommerville directed, and both spotswere created with After Effects, Infinity, Studio Pro and Media 100. JulieWatkins of New York City-based Manhattan Transfer completed the compositein Inferno.
Every fan who dreamed of building a car like Speed Racer's Mach 5 will beinterested to know that Speed's ultra-cool car is finally being built byLong Beach, California-based Focus on Cars, an automotive fabricationcompany that caters to the entertainment and advertising industry. The carwill be used to promote a nation-wide safety tour conducted by The ChildSafety Network (CSN) called CHILD SAFETY DAY AT THE RACES. The Mach 5 willprivately debut at the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show -
San Francisco-based Protozoa, with DotComix, the animation portal atwww.dotcomix.com, has produced a 3D animated rock video for Internetbroadcast with Garry Trudeau and his JT Thudpucker character from theDOONESBURY comic strip for NetAid, a UN sponsored global crusade againstpoverty. The video features JT singing a NetAid anthem, and debuts onWednesday, September 29 at www.doonesbury.com. Trudeau has integrated thepremiere of the Internet video within the plot of his daily Doonesbury
New York City-based Oxygen Media, Geraldine Laybourne's media companyfounded to provide content for women, has named eight executive producers,seven of whom are new to Oxygen's team, to guide the development ofOxygen's growing online network, including building five new sites - Style,Sports, Teens, O2 Simplify, and womenshands - as well as expanding thepopular existing parenting site, Moms Online and Oprah.com. The new andexpanded sites will be rolled out this winter. Oxygen's online executive
Bill Plympton's second animated feature film, I MARRIED A STRANGE PERSON,will have its television premiere on the cable television network Cinemaxon October 22, 1999 at 8 pm. The film is about a husband who discovers histhoughts become reality. It premiered at the Toronto International FilmFestival in September 1997, and was featured in Dramatic Competition at the1998 Sundance Film Festival. The film was named Best Theatrical Film at theWorld Animation Celebration in February 1998, and was awarded the Grand
Sony Pictures Family Entertainment's ROUGHNECKS: STARSHIP TROOPERS hasfallen behind schedule. Although the show is currently in syndication byBKN (Bohbot Kids Network), only nine out of forty episodes have beencompleted and several episodes have already been repeated with many morerepeats expected. Burbank, California-based Flat Earth Productions optedout of its fifteen episode production contract after completing only threeepisodes because they felt the schedule with the budget was overly
Milia 2000, the World's Interactive Content Marketplace, which takes placefrom February 14 - 18, 2000 in Cannes, France, is calling for entries forthe Milia New Talent Competition. Since its creation five years ago, theNew Talent Competition has provided interactive entertainment and new mediaprofessionals with the opportunity of discovering students' fresh creativeideas, and offered a new forum for recruiting new talent. A jury composedof international experts will meet in Paris in December in order to select
Animation-Books.com, in association with ANiMATO!, the animation magazine,has announced the results of an internet poll of the best animation booksof all time, and THE ILLUSION OF LIFE: DISNEY ANIMATION by Frank Thomas andOllie Johnston tops the list. While the list may be biased toward morerecent, easily available English publications, few would argue that this,for once, is a solid list, and every title belongs in one's animationlibrary. According to Animation-Books.com, "Polling for the
Bothel, Washington-based Humongous Entertainment, creators of children'ssoftware, and Nickelodeon are releasing BLUE'S TREASURE HUNT, a Blue'sClues CD-ROM learning adventure for preschoolers. Based on Nickelodeon'sprimetime special that aired in March 1999, BLUE'S TREASURE HUNT followsBLUE'S ABC TIME ACTIVITIES, BLUE'S BIRTHDAY and BLUE'S 123 TIME ACTIVITIES.In BLUE'S TREASURE HUNT, kids aged three to six team up with Steve and hisBlue's Clues pals to help search for the treasure chest that holds the keys
Macromedia, Inc., leading publisher of Web publishing tools such asDreamweaver, Fireworks and Generator, is offering a multi-city Generator 2Seminar and Training Series for Internet professionals seeking successfulonline solutions for e-business, e-commerce, financial services, news &information and advertising. Generator 2 delivers targeted, real-timegraphics and interactivity for Web sites that feature on-demand content.Attendees will learn how Ford Motor Company, Internet Shopping Network and
The United States Post Office has issued a Yellow Submarine stamp with TheBeatles which was illustrated by Robin Shepherd and Caleb Lawrence ofJacksonville, Florida-based The Robin Shepherd Group. The stamp wasofficially dedicated on September 17, 1999 in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and thepackage of fifteen stamps will be available soon at post offices across thecountry. The "Celebrate the Century" stamp series features fifteen stampsfor each decade of the twentieth century. The final stamps were determined
New York-based SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION has completed "Cold Start," a spotfor Prestone antifreeze, for agency Grey Advertising. Spontaneous used 3DStudio MAX to create the engine and antifreeze. Live-action footage wasproduced by New York-based Zero 2 Sixty.
DISNEY INTERACTIVE has promoted JAN SMITH to executive vice president ofDisney's software-development business. Smith will be responsible forworldwide operations of Disney Interactive, including product development,marketing, finance and administration, business and legal affairs, andcustomer support.
Every year since 1991, the organization CARTOON, with the support of theMEDIA program of the European Union, selects one European short animatedfilm as the "Cartoon d'Or," or "best European animation film." This year'swinner, announced at the Cartoon Forum in Corboda, Spain (September 22-26),is MIGRATIONS by Constantin Chamski (France). The 4-minute CGI film isdistributed by France-based Heure Exquise! where it was also produced. Thisyear's other nominees were L'ARME DU CROCODILE by Eric Blesin (Belgium), EL
MIPCOM: International Film and Programme Market for TV, Video, Cable, andSatellite. Starting next week, thousands of producers, programmers andbroadcasters will converge on Cannes, France for the MIPCOM and MIP Juniormarkets. From Reed-Midem, the organizers of MIP-TV, MIP Asia and MILIA,MIPCOM is known as the place where international television deals happen.Among the properties being offered are Sony Wonder's LION OF OZ AND THEBADGE OF COURAGE, an animated musical prequel to THE WIZARD OF OZ;
The Museum of Television and Radio in New York and Los Angeles hosts aretrospective of Hanna-Barbera's television series with a series of60-minute screenings. The series includes SCOOBY-DOO, THE FANTASTIC FOUR,SPACE GHOST, SUPERFRIENDS, JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS, MAGILLA GORILLA, TOPCAT, RICOCHET RABBIT, and YOGI BEAR. The new Spumco/Cartoon Network YOGIBEAR shorts have sparked a debate among fans regarding the quality ofHanna-Barbera's YOGI BEAR shorts in particular, and Hanna-Barbera's
Jeffrey Scott will speak at the Women In Animation Writers'Seminar Series at Saban Entertainment. Jeffrey has written over 450animation scripts and has won three Emmys and the Humanitas Prize. Hecurrently works on DRAGON TALES which can be seen on PBS. The event takesplace Thursday, October 14, 7:30 pm in Westwood, California, USA. This isthe last seminar in the series until January. For more information contactJean Wright at (818) 360-8321. RSVP required.
Buena Vista's supernatural thriller THE SIXTH SENSE, with visual effects byDreamQuest, finished third for the second consecutive weekend at the USboxoffice, grossing an estimated $8.5 million over the weekend, for a totalof $221.8 million. No other animation related films finished in the top ten.
From September 22 to 26, the 1999 Cartoon Forum will be welcoming 620participants, among which will be Animation World Network's own RonDiamond, in Cordoba, Spain. This record attendance shows that this event,organized over the last 10 years with support from the European Union Mediaprogram, has been established as an important industry event. This yearsixty-nine projects seeking partners will be offered to potential investorsand producers. Over 150 projects initiated at the Forum in previous years
The third annual British Animation Awards is calling for entries from UKanimators. The awards will be announced on Thursday, March 9, 2000.Deadline for entries is December 1, 1999. For more information Tel. 0171383 4387; or Fax 0171 388 3782.
London, UK-based commercial production company PASSION PICTURES has signedDAVID FEISS and EMMA CALDER as directors. Feiss, a long time veteran, isbest known as the creator of Cartoon Network's COW AND CHICKEN. Calder'srecent film, THE QUEEN'S MONASTERY, has won prizes at film festivalsthroughout the world. . . PIXAR ANIMATION STUDIOS has hired ANN MATHER asits executive vice president and chief financial officer. Mather has morethan eighteen years of financial operations experience, including seven
Seattle, Washington-based REALNETWORKS, a company specializing in Internetmedia delivery, has promoted THOMAS FRANK to chief operating officer andhired MARTIN PLAEHN as senior vice president of media systems. Frank, whojoined RealNetworks in January of this year, was previously senior vicepresident of media programming and publishing. Plaehn joins RealNetworksfrom Viewpoint Digital, Inc., a computer graphics company, where he wasPresident. . . UNIVERSAL PICTURES has promoted GREG SUCHERMAN to vice
