Test your skills and challenge your brain with AWN's Animation Trivia Quiz. Where did "Ersatz," the first film from outside of the United States to win an Academy Award for best animated film, originate from? What is Rembrandt Film's home country? Where did Jiri Trnka create his body of work? Good luck...you'll need it!
Great gift ideas for Disney buffs of all ages. Plus, the AWN store has plenty more Disney favorites available...
* Monday, January 22 Thursday, January 25, 2000. Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.A.
* Wednesday, January 24 Thursday, January 25, 2001. London, U.K.
December will feature articles based on the themes of location-based entertainment and anime. Karl Cohen is profiling Imax -- is animation's next frontier in peril? Also, Martin "Dr. Toon" Goodman will be discussing the past and future of LBE, specifically VR. On the anime side of things Fred Patten is going to review "Vampire Hunter D," the latest anime release to arrive on U.S. soil. Andrew Osmond is going to be interviewing a number of experts and scholars on the stylistic merits of Japanese animation. Be ready to put on your thinking cap before reading this one.
* Friday, January 26 Saturday, February 3, 2001. Clermont-Ferrand, France.
Hollywood, California's Toonshoppe, provider of 2D and 3D character animation services, is looking for 2D CHARACTER ANIMATORS for a television pilot. . . Oak Brook, Illinois' wwwcrc, a start up breaking into streaming media content creation, is looking for 2D FLASH ANIMATORS. . . San Francisco, California's Academy of Art College is looking for ANIMATION/VFX INSTRUCTORS to teach in one or more of the following areas: 3D modeling; character setup and animation; lighting and texturing; visual effects; and traditional animation. Instructors may also take classes at the college. . .
AWN's stock ticker features the most prominent publicly traded companies in the world of animation. AWN, Inc. makes available certain financial information from third party information providers. AWN does not give advice in any such fields, and has not reviewed, and in no way endorses the validity of such data. This information is provided solely as a means to keep our readers informed of the market performance and trends of certain companies. AWN strongly suggests that one seek advice from a competent professional regarding any investment or financial issues.
The London Effects and Animation Festival handed out its awards at a ceremony on November 14, 2000...
With international numbers trickling in due to the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, it looks like CHARLIE'S ANGELS is charming audiences around the world. In its U.K. debut, ANGELS raked in a whopping US$4.52 million. After five-weeks in U.K. theatres, WHAT LIES BENEATH sunk to second, with a gross of $768,052, elevating its cume to $16.39 million. In fourth, BEDAZZLED danced in with $505,329, raising its U.K. cume to $3.92 million. LITTLE NICKY possessed 5th place, grossing $385,214, thereby growing its U.K. cume to $1.46 million.
On Sunday, November 19, 2000, the Holland Animation Film Festival concluded its five-day festival with the presentation of its awards. This year's event was the first to hand out an award for independent animation films. With this competition, the festival sets out to promote the short, artistic animation film, and, as a result, encourage media attention toward independent animation.
Santa Monica Internet entertainment site TheThreshold.com has acquired the online game rights to the HELLRAISER franchise originally created by Clive Barker. HELLRAISER: HELL ONLINE will be the first game produced from the deal and will be available at www.thethreshold.com or directly through www.hellraiseronline.com. The game challenges players to solve the Lament Configuration, the puzzle box that opens a gateway to Hell. The game starts as a simple puzzle that gamers must solve each time they visit the Website. Solving the puzzle is the first step in the complex game.
Contrary to what we announced in last week's Spotlight, the 3rd International Student Animation Festival of Ottawa (SAFO) will be held October 18-21, 2001, not November...
Cartoon Network and Oscar winning TOM & JERRY creator Joe Barbera are finishing up the production of a new episode of the classic cartoon series. Barbera worked with SYLVESTER AND TWEETY veteran Karl Toerge to create the new adventure "Mansion Cat," which has the dueling duo wrecking havoc in an old mansion. Barbera even provided the voice of the mansion owner. The short will air as part of Cartoon Network U.K.'s New Year's Day 2001 24-hour TOM & JERRY marathon, which includes 161 MGM TOM & JERRY shorts. Fans of the series outside the U.K.
The Society for Animation Studies has updated its Website with current membership and contact information...
On November 27, 2000, Microsoft filed legal papers with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to prevent the company's break up. In its first filing, the company attacked U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, who originally ordered the split, as being biased.
Disney's Buena Vista has promoted Jason Reed to senior VP of the motion picture group and Bob Chapek and Dennis Maguire to presidents of home entertainment domestic and international respectively. Reed will now be the third in command at Buena Vista Motion Picture Group, under president Nina Jacobson and exec VP Mark Vahradian. Previously, Reed served as VP of production for the last 5 1/2 years. As president of Buena Vista Home Entertainment's domestic division, Chapek will oversee all areas of domestic distribution for Walt Disney, Touchstone, Miramax and Dimension.
Saban International, the distribution division of Fox Family Worldwide, has promoted Julie Wineberg to senior VP of international sales and management, Tony Howe to VP of international business and legal affairs and Maria Torregrosa to VP of sales. Wineberg will increase her work with international Fox Kids channels while continuing to oversee all aspects of the division's day-to-day television sales administration. Previously, she served as VP of international sales management. Howe will continue negotiating and spearheading co-productions and distribution deals across all media worldwide.
* Thursday, January 4 Monday, January 10, 2001. Sydney, Australia.
* Thursday, January 18 Friday, January 19, 2001. New York, New York, U.S.A.
* Thursday, January 19 Saturday, January 21, 2001. Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A.
Film Roman has promoted Uriel Sigala to the position of chief technology officer. In his new post, he will be responsible for modernizing the company's technology so that it can be more efficient and cost-effective. Sigala is a five-year veteran of Film Roman as the head of the technology division, in which he helped establish Film Roman's entertainment Website Level13.net. Currently, he is spearheading the design and implementation of the forthcoming www.filmroman.com Website.
ABC has decided to redesign its Disney's One Saturday Morning line-up starting December 9, 2000. Instead of airing three half-hour series and interstitials during a two-hour programming block, they will air four half-hour episodes. This move will secure start times for all four series, which up until now floated around the two-hour window depending on the length of the various animated and live-action interstitials. Until their new series LLYOD IN SPACE joins the block in 2001, ABC will air TEACHER'S PET, WEEKENDERS and two episodes of RECESS.
For the second straight weekend, HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS has captured the top spot at the U.S. box office. With the second highest all time five-day Thanksgiving holiday cume of US$73.8 million, THE GRINCH, with primary visual effects by Digital Domain, has nabbed an amazing $137.1 million in just ten days. Therefore, director M. Night Shyamalan's follow-up to last year's sleeper hit, THE SIXTH SENSE, UNBREAKABLE had to settle for a second place debut.
Nickelodeon Films and Paramount Pictures have asked producer/actor Dan Schneider to pen the script for their next animated feature based on Keith Graves' short story PET BOY. The story will unravel the adventures of a pet-loving boy and his trip to an alien planet after discovering a secret alien pet selling operation at his local pet store. The project came to Nick as a pitch from Graves and producer John Williams. Schneider might be best known for his role as Dennis on the '80s sitcom HEAD OF THE CLASS.
