Aardman Animations’ hit children’s brand SHAUN THE SHEEP continues to expand its international presence, securing a raft of new TV and licensing deals worldwide.

Since its launch at MIPCOM 06, SHAUN THE SHEEP has racked up television sales and licensing deals in over 150 territories and has won several prestigious accolades including the Cristal Award for Best TV Production at the Annecy Animated Film Festival 2007 and the Audience Choice Award at the World Comedy Film Festival 2007.

Aardman Animations has announced that its award-winning TV shows are now available for 1.89 GBP per episode from the iTunes Store in the U.K. (www.itunes.com/uk).

Aardman International has secured the worldwide TV, DVD and online rights to the award-winning PETER AND THE WOLF. The half-hour stop-motion animated film has already been licensed in several territories.

Produced by BreakThru Films, this latest film version of Prokofiev's classic work was first aired on Channel 4 last year. It was adapted and directed by the BAFTA-award-winning Suzie Templeton and set to a special new recording by the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Annecy International Animated Film Festival 2008
Annecy, France
June 9-14, 2008
Deadline: Jan. 15, 2008

The 31st Annecy International Festival of Animation is the premier animation festival in the world. The festival features screenings, retrospectives, seminars, tributes and an international film competition. The MIFA expo held in conjunction with the festival is the international market for animated film. For more information, visit www.annecy.org.

The Annecy International Animated Film Festival and Toondra.com, the first VOD site devoted to short animated films, are partnering to offer a showcase of international animation. More than 1,000 extracts of short films submitted for the festival's official selection will be available for free on www.toondra.com, and the service will be frequently updated with new extracts. The catalogue of films comes from Animaquid, the database created by the Annecy Festival over its 47 years of existence. Check out www.toondra.com and www.annecy.org.

The latest downloadable Acrobat edition of Animation World Magazine is now on virtual stands. This edition covers independent animation. Karen Raugust reports that despite the wide gap in budgets and resources, independent animation houses can learn from the major media companies' digital/new media activities. Raugust also looks at how animation executives rely on their big-studio experience to launch new indie production houses. Joe Strike sheds some light on what distributors are looking for when they go out searching for animation to acquire.

Software maker DigiCel has released the newest PC version of its popular 2D animation software. FlipBook 5 for Windows includes new paperless animation features to support drawing on both normal and display tablets or tablet PCs, as well as a new light-box feature to control image display.

Aardman is making its foray into the preschool market, unveiling its brand new stop-motion animated series TIMMY at MIPCOM. The 52x10 series has already been pre-bought by CBeebies in the U.K., and Aardman International is looking to secure further worldwide pre-sale deals at the market.

TV-Loonland announced its appointment by Japanese production company Nippon Animation to handle multi-territory distribution for its pre-school property PENELOPE (26x5).

Under the deal, TV-Loonland will handle rights for TV, home video, VOD, broadband, IPTV and mobile sales to Western and Eastern Europe, Russia, Baltic States, Scandinavia, Israel, the Middle East as well as Africa, including South Africa.

THE TEN, a feature film directed by David Wain featuring Paul Rudd, Wionan Ryder, and Jessica Alba features a seven-minute animated segment called, THE LYING RHINO, animated by Augenblick Studios. Produced by Wain, Jonathan Stern and Paul Rudd, THE TEN is a THINKFilm release opening Aug. 3, 2007.