AWN Headline News

The 22nd Cinanima International Animated Film Festival wrapped up onNovember 15 in Espinho, Portugal. The international jury consisted ofCarlos Pinto Coelho (Portugal), Florence Henrard (Belgium), BorivojDovnikovic (Croatia), Georges Sifianos (France) and Georges Schwizgebel(Switzerland). Below is a complete list of winners as reported by thefestival:

CLASS A (less than 6 minutes) - tie"Festival" by Roberto Catani (Italy)."L'Arme du Crocodile" by Eric Blesin (Belgium).

CLASS B (between 6 and 13 minutes).

The Varga Group of Companies, which includes the Hungarian animation studio Varga Studio and UK-based VARGA tvc Ltd., will conduct business under a newly formed holding company, Varga Holdings. Varga Holdings reflects Vargas worldwide expansion in the production of high quality animation and replaces Eurotoon, the previous holding company for the two animation studios. Co-founder of Varga Studio, Andras Erkel, was named Chief Executive Officer of Varga Holdings while co-founder Csaba Varga has been named Group Creative Director.

A half-hour special, THE MAKING OF THE RUGRATS MOVIE will air on November 26 at 6:00 p.m. (ET) on U.S. cable network TV Land with segments on the Rugrats voices, the unique animation style, and the star-studded soundtrack.

Fox Entertainment Group president Peter Roth resigned last week after adisappointing season for Fox Network's television shows. Comedy Centralchief executive officer Doug Herzog was announced as the replacement wherehe'll head Fox's development, scheduling, marketing and promotion. Herzogis responsible for bringing "South Park" to Comedy Central and it is hisintention to push the envelope content-wise at Fox as well. Certainly, agood deal of Fox's future rides on animated shows with three major

Producer/director Eric Radomski recently joined Film Roman as ExecutiveProducer. His new role includes heading up the company's restructuredanimation development and production program as well as taking the helm ofFilm Roman's expanding digital shorts program. Company president and CEODavid Pritchard stated, "Film Roman is fortunate and excited that Eric hasagreed to help us rebuild the new Film Roman. We see him as part of thefuture of this company, will rely on him to lead our animation division

* Monday, November 23 - Wednesday, November 25. Encino, California, U.S.A.

"Plug," a computer animated/live-action film about a futuristic society where people live their entire lives plugged into virtual reality machines, will screen at Laemmle's Town Center 5 for Academy Award qualification. Show times are 11:15 and 12:10 daily. For further screening information, contact (818) 981-9811.

The Harvey Entertainment Company (Nasdaq: HRVY) reported a net loss of $2,006,000, or $0.48 per share, for the third quarter of 1998 as compared to a net gain of $2,551,000, or $0.62 a share, for the same third quarter period in 1997. For the nine month period ending September 30,1998, Harvey has totaled a net loss of $4,788,000, or $1.19 per share, as compared to a net income of $2,551,000, or $0.64 per share, in the comparable year-ago period. Net operating revenues were also considerably less coming in at a negative $1,121,000 compared to revenues of $7,126,000 in the year-ago period.

Canada's television and cinema production and distribution group, Coscient Group, announced that their subsidiary Cactus Animation has started production on two new animated series: "Pirate Family" and "Fantomette." The animated comedies are a co-production with French company Elma Animation and have a total budget of $22 million. The series, each composed of 26 half-hour episodes, have already been pre-sold by Motion International, Coscient Group's distribution subsidiary, to a number of markets.

This Saturday, November 21, at 8:00 PM (ET), THE CARTOON NETWORK will air the animated direct-to-video Batman feature released earlier this year, "Batman and Mr. Freeze: SubZero." The film, which was directed by Boyd Kirkland and written and produced by Kirkland and Randy Rogel, won an Annie Award this past Friday for Outstanding Animated Home Video Production.

* Monday, November 23 - Wednesday, November 25. Santa Monica, California, U.S.A.

"TIGHTROPE," Digital Domain's first in-house production, will premiere at the Laemmle's Monica Theatre for Academy qualification. The five minute, CG-animated short was written and directed by Daniel Robichaud. Showtimes are 12:00 PM and 12:45 PM daily. For more information, call (310)477-5581.

Los Angeles-based Film Roman has brought Mark Lieber on board as the new president of domestic television development and distribution. Lieber's responsibilities in this newly created position include directing the development of all proprietary television product (both animation and live-action), as well as overseeing the distribution of Film Roman's proprietary series through broadcast, cable and syndication in the U.S.

The highly anticipated animated primetime series "Dilbert" is set topremiere on UPN Monday January 25, 1999 at 8:00 PM PT/ET. "Dilbert" isbased off the popular syndicated comic strip created by Scott Adams whichdeals with the absurdities of the '90s workplace in the cubicle-confinedoffice environment that rules corporate America.