AWN Headline News

Thirty-seven never-before-seen CARTOONS FOR CHILDREN'S RIGHTS PSA's will be shown at the Annecy Film Festival in Annecy, France on Tuesday, June 1 at 6 pm. A global broadcast initiative organized by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), CARTOONS FOR CHILDREN'S RIGHTS informs people about children's rights, as set forth by the 1989 United Nations General Assembly Convention on the Rights of the Child. To help raise awareness of these rights, UNICEF has collected 66 CARTOONS FOR CHILDREN'S RIGHTS spots produced by animators from 32 countries.

Four effects driven action films finished in the top ten this week, led byLucasfilm's STAR WARS EPISODE 1: THE PHANTOM MENACE which grossed $32.2million to bring its total to $255 million. Universal's THE MUMMY, withdigital effects by ILM, finished fourth, grossing $7.5 million for a totalof $127.6 million; THE MATRIX, directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski,finished sixth, grossing $2.4 million for a total of $158.2 million; THETHIRTEENTH FLOOR, with digital effects by Centropolis Effects, finished

Two weeks after winning for best short film at the Cannes Film Festival,Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis' short film, WHEN THE DAY BREAKS (TheNational Film Board of Canada), has won the Grand Prix for best animatedshort film at Annecy '99, which concluded on Saturday, June 5. The film isabout a pig whose world shifts after a car accident kills a stranger (achicken) on her block. The complete list of award winners is as follows:The special Jury Prize went to AU BOUT DU MONDE/AT THE END OF THE EARTH by

The Rhode Island School of Design senior show includes films, videos, andanimation. Shows take place Wednesday, May 19 - Saturday, May 22, 7 pm, andFriday, June 4, 1 pm and 7 pm in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. For moreinformation call 401-454-5233. Wednesday, May 19 - Saturday, May 22, 7 pm,and Friday, June 4, 1 pm and 7 pm. Providence, Rhode Island, USA.

Activision, Inc., in collaboration with Disney Interactive, Inc., has released a game based on Walt Disney Pictures' and Pixar Animation Studio's computer-generated animated film, A BUG'S LIFE, for the Nintendo 64 game console. A BUG'S LIFE lets players run, fly and slide through an interactive journey. In the game players take on the role of the film's hero, Flik, an inventive but occasionally over-enthusiastic ant, who enlists a group of flea circus bugs to help him in his quest to save his colony from the hands of the villainous Hopper and his legion of grasshoppers.

Passion Pictures has created a new fully computer generated spot starringWilly Wonka (WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY). Launching Rowntree'snew Wonka Xploder chocolate bar, the :20 spot shows Wonka and his chocolatefactory where teams of robots stir vats of bubbling chocolate, and brightlycolored machines create delicious chocolates. Willy tests his newinvention, the Wonka Xploder, on two boys who are inside a sealed testingroom. The boys are startled when the chocolates explode and the secret

REALVIZ S.A. has announced the availability of its MatchMover softwaresolution for animation and special effects professionals on Microsoft,Windows, NT and GI IRIX platforms. Using MatchMover, computer-generated 3Dimages can be easily integrated with video or film to create SimulatedReality. Using computed 3D coordinates and geometric constraints,MatchMover transforms original live-action footage into an accurate 3Dspace. The transformed 3D live-action space can be precisely matched to 3D

Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis' short film, WHEN THE DAY BREAKS (TheNational Film Board of Canada), won the Palme d'Or at the recentlyconcluded 52nd Cannes International Film Festival in Cannes, France. Ittook four years for Forbis and Tilby to finish the softly colored,wordless, but musical, story of a pig whose world shifts after a caraccident kills a stranger (a chicken) on her block. Forbis and Tilby beganthe production of "When the Day Breaks" by shooting High-8 video of the

The second part of UCLA's tribute to Japanese anime takes place May 8 -June 1, 1999. (The first part of the series, titled MAGICAL BOYS & GIRLS,took place in January 1999 and was devoted to children's animation.) Thetribute includes the following programs:

THURSDAY, MAY 13, 1999 - 7:30 PMPRAISE BE TO SMALL ILLS (NAMU ICHIBYO SOKUSAI) (1973, 35mm, 18 min.)Directed by Tadanari Okamoto. In Japanese with English subtitles.THE DEMON (ONI)(1972, 35 mm, 8 min.) Directed by Kihachiro Kawamoto. In

SP0NGEBOB SQUAREPANTS, a new animated series which is being produced at theBurbank Nicktoons Studio, will premiere on Nickelodeon on July 17 at 10:00am ET/PT in the USA, becoming Nickelodeon's first original Saturday morningcartoon. A preview of the cartoon appeared on Nickelodeon on May 1, andreceived a 6.3 rating and a 25 share when it was watched by 6.9 millionviewers. The cartoon features the adventures of SpongeBob, a hopelesslyoptimistic and earnest sea sponge whose good intentions often lead to bad

THE PHANTOM MENACE finished first in last week's Memorial Day weekend USboxoffice race, taking in an estimated $64.8 million to bring its total to$204.8 million. Based on this, experts are now predicting that the filmwill eventually pass $400 million in North Amercian receipts. THE MUMMYfinished in third place, taking in $12.7 million, for a total of $117.1million. Newcomer THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR, an effects driven thriller aboutvirtual reality, finished fifth, taking in $4.3 million. THE MATRIX

Don Spielvogel, President of VirtualMagic Animation, Inc., and JeffreyHarrison, Chairman/CEO of ImagineAsia Studio, announce the formation ofVirtualMagic ASIA, a new digital ink, paint and compositing service in thePhilippines that will operate as a subsidiary of VirtualMagic Animation,Inc. headquartered in North Hollywood, California. VirtualMagic ASIA is acorporate venture between two animation and digital service studios,VirtualMagic Animation, Inc. and ImagineAsia Studio, of Manila.