AWN Headline News

Toronto-based NELVANA has hired Cathy Laughton as managing director of itsLondon-based operations. Laughton will be responsible for the overallmanagement of the UK office. Her responsibilities include the acquisitionof new properties for production/licensing development, sales to the UK,Germany, Scandinavia, and Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxemborg),and securing co-production opportunities. Laughton joins Nelvana from theJim Henson Company where she served as director of international televisiondistribution.

Walt Disney International Europe and Buena Vista Internet Group (BVIG) havepromoted Andrew Barron to executive vice president of new media andbusiness development for Walt Disney International Europe; and Chafic Najiato senior vice president and managing director of Buena Vista InternetGroup Europe. Barron joined WDTV-I in 1995 as director of businessdevelopment. Since then he has been responsible for identifying andnegotiating several Disney Channel agreements, as well as equity

Nickelodeon's PHRED ON YOUR HEAD is a show in which Phred, an originalanimated character who appears on the forehead of a different real kidevery day, and the kid whose forehead Phred appears on, introduce anirreverent collection of classic segments from such educational shows asSESAME STREET and THE ELECTRIC COMPANY, in addition to new material that iseducational and entertaining. Working from sketches provided by NewYork-based Data Motion Arts (DMA), Possible Worlds and MTV Animation

THE IRON GIANT will be honored Saturday morning at 10:30 am at Mann'sChinese Theater in Hollywood when a supersized footprint (12' by 6') willbe presented by the filmmakers and stars in the forecourt of the historictheater. (Because of prior commitments, the Giant will be unable toattend.) Johnny Grant, the honorary mayor of Hollywood, will emcee theevent. Cast and crew will attend the film's premiere following thepresentation of the footprint. Among those in attendance will be the

On September 14, Kid Rhino will release the soundtrack album for the upcoming feature length Scooby-Doo video, SCOOBY-DOO! AND THE WITCH'S GHOST, which is scheduled for release on October 5. In SCOOBY-DOO! AND THE WITCH'S GHOST, Scooby and Mystery Inc. travel to a small New England town to learn why it's being spooked by witches' ghosts. Scooby-Doo and the Mystery Machine will appear in the flesh at the Rhino Retrofest, August 13 to 15, at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California, USA. Suggested retail price for the CD is US$13.98 and US$9.98 for the cassette.

The Welsh Animation Group, an association of Welsh animators created to develop an international animated film festival in Wales, has published the first issue of their newsletter, WAG NEWSLETTER. This new group centered in Cardiff has emerged for a number of reasons. Siriols Robin Lyons first discussed, The need for a lobbying pressure group and, just as importantly a forum for animators, as stated in the publications editorial written by Dave Berry.