AWN Headline News

* Wednesday, February 16, 2000. Westwood, California, U.S.A.

For the tenth consecutive year Clifford Cohen's AnimAction will be

presenting the TEAM (Tobacco Education Awareness Message) Awards.

Twenty-seven middle schools have participated in AnimAction's filmmaking

program this year. Students work together in creating animated Public

Service Announcements (PSAs). The award winning PSAs will be aired on

network and cable TV. Previous PSAs have been distributed by UNICEF and

* Thursday, February 24 - Sunday, March 5, 2000. San Jose, California, U.S.A.

Cinequest San Jose Film Festival showcases features and short films (16mm &

35mm all genres) of artistic, social or stylistic merit. This year, the

festival is celebrating Maverick Films, Filmmakers and Technologies. For

more information contact Cinequest 2000 at: P.O Box 720040, San Jose, CA

95172-0040; Tel.: (408) 995-5033; Fax: (408) 995-5713; E-mail:

cineqst@wenet.net; or Web: http://www.cinequest.org.

* Friday, March 3 - Saturday, March 4, 2000. Glendale, California, U.S.A.

This year, ASIFA-Hollywood will host its 7th Annual Animation Expo. The

Expo is a two day animation industry trade show focusing on the exhibition

of animation related products and services and the recruitment of related

talent and personnel. In addition, the Expo offers industry seminars and

workshops, digital tutorials and a showcase of animation. Admission price

* Thursday, March 9, 2000. London, U.K.

The 3rd annual British Animation Awards will include the following: Best

Film Under Seven Minutes, Best Longer Short Film, Best TV and Film

Graphics, Best Film at the Cutting Edge, Mari Kuttna Award for Best

Directorial Debut, Best Direction of an Animated Commercial, Best

Animation/Craft in a Commercial, Best Adult Series, Best TV Children's

Special, Best Children's Series, Best Pre-School Series, Children's Choice

FILM ROMAN INC. has announced that veteran entertainment industry executive

LEONARD J. GROSSI has joined their board of directors and SIDNEY CLIFTON

has been promoted to director of television development. Currently, Grossi

is a partner in LSLG Associates, which owns a 49% interest in WHPN-TV, a

Madison, WS-based UPN affiliate. Grossi has recently formed and serves as

chairman and CEO of both Baseline Media and Entertainment Inc., a media,

communications and entertainment consulting firm, and Mile Square

The Super Bowl, American football's biggest game, kept people away from

U.S. theatres this past weekend, but STUART LITTLE, with primary visual

effects by Sony Pictures Imageworks, additional animation by CFX and Rhythm

& Hues, and miniatures by Thunderstone, stayed steady at 4th place in the

box office. Sony's great white hope (a white mouse that is) grossed US$4.78

million bringing its total to $123 million. THE GREEN MILE, with primary

Fox has leaked the scoop that a central Simpsons character will be killed

off on the February 13 episode of the decade old toon. Rumors have been

circling that the grim reaper will be swinging his scythe at Maude

Flanders, wife of Jesus freak neighbor Ned. In a bold move of honesty THE

SIMPSONS' executive producer Mike Scully fully admits the show is a

shameless attempt at grabbing sweeps ratings. "We're in our 11th season and

we're always looking for new ways to shake up the show a little and do

Nickelodeon has recently closed the San Mateo branch of its on-line unit

announced Nick On-line Pres. Fred Seibert. The office had been doing

research and development for "Project Nozzle" -- a re-launch of Nick.com as

a children's Web portal. To help strengthen the re-launch Viacom, owners of

Nick, bought San Mateo-based Web development house Nvolve, which turned

into the now de-funked San Mateo branch of Nick.com. This decision comes on

the heals of the suspension of "Project Nozzle's" main component My

Mill Film announced that LAURENT HUGUENIOT and DAVID LOMAX have been

promoted to joint heads of Mill Film 3D. The promotion takes place with

immediate effect and follows on the heals of the recent announcement that

Mill Film will unite operations with sister company Magic Camera. Lomax

joined Mill Film in February 1997 from Pixar Animation Studios where he was

senior technical director for modeling and shader development on the

animated feature film, A BUGS LIFE. Since joining Mill Film, Lomax has

Husband of the late Mary Kay Bergman, Dino Andrade, has put out a call to

SOUTH PARK and Mary Kay Bergman fans to write to the Academy of Motion

Picture Arts and Sciences in an effort to have Mrs. Bergman included in the

"In Memoriam" segment of the 2000 Oscar ceremony. Typically, the Academy

only honors higher profile talent who have passed away in the past year. As

reported [AF 11/23/99], Mrs. Bergman took her own life on November 11, 1999

Cartoon Network's Cartoon Campaign 2000 is electing the next president from

a field of 50 cartoon candidates. Cartoon Network will provide the hopeful

candidates with free airtime from 7-9 p.m. each night between Sunday, March

5, and Thursday, March 9, 2000 when they will screen their own personal

cartoons for viewers. During each night's election coverage, viewers can

vote for their favorite characters via an 800-number that will appear on

BERNARD STOLAR was named president of MATTEL INTERACTIVE, the division that

includes The Learning Company and other software and high-tech products.

Stolar joins Mattel from Sega where he helped engineer the launch of the

Sega Dreamcast video game console in the United States. At Mattel, he will

try to mend the ailing Learning Company division, whose unexpected $105

million loss in the third quarter shocked investors and diminished Mattel's