At the 2007 Annecy Animation Festival, speakers from Pixar will reveal some of the magic behind Pixar's feature films, with a focus on rendering techniques. These presentations are open to everyone. These talks are sponsored by RenderMan, Pixar's award-winning rendering software. Additionally, for those who attend these special presentations, Pixar will be giving away a collectable poster of the upcoming Disney/Pixar animated feature film, RATATOUILLE. Seating for the presentations is limited. First come, first seated. Talks are located at the Imperial Palace - 5th floor, Ravel B.

The American version of CREATURE COMFORTS, the hit British television series, premieres tonight, (June 4, 2007) at 8:00-8:30 pm on the CBS. Based on the original Academy Award-winning short film of the same name created by Nick Park and Aardman Animations Ltd., the stop-motion animated series employs a unique format that culls excerpts from real person interviews in the U.S. and places them in the mouths of a wide variety of animated animals to produce humorous, charming and insightful commentaries on everyday life.

NCircle Ent. announced that it has entered into an exclusive multi-year distribution partnership with Granada Int'l, which makes NCircle the exclusive U.S. home entertainment distributor for the award-winning animated children's series POCOYO.

Industry vet Paul Golden has launched FFAKE, a new production and animation production company in Portland, reports HIGHEND3D. The FFAKE talent roster includes such well-known animation directors as Carl Willat, Nicholas Weigel and the Maverix Art Collective, which includes Ed Bell, Robert Valley, Tom Rubalcava and Charlie Canfield. FFAKE's up-and-coming talents include David Lobser, Peter Richardson and Ben Meinhardt.

The Annecy International Animation Festival is nearing and Animation World Network wants to know what your doing at the premiere animation event of the year. Send us your festival and MIFA news for consideration for our special Annecy Flash newsletter and daily site coverage. It's a chance to get the word on your project out to the community before the festival begins. Please send all information and press releases to Sarah Baisley at sarah@awn.com by May 28, 2007.

Massive Software is hitting the road in May with stops in London, Newscastle and the fmx/07 conference in Stuttgart, Germany.

Hosted by Escape Studios in London, the events will demystify the working processes between Massive, the AI-driven animation system software and Pixar's RenderMan rendering powerhouse.

The Annecy International Animated Film Festival has announced the feature films that will screen in and out of competition at the 2007 event. The selection jury -- which included distributor Lucie Kalmar, producer Bruno Gaumetou and director Thierry Schiel -- choose a very international group of films for competition.

Annecy International Animation Festival has announced its list of selections in eight categories. For short films, 51 productions will screen in competition and exactly the same amount will screen in both the panorama and student categories. For TV, 34 series, nine specials, 20 advertising films and six music videos will be part of the prestigious event. Two educational, scientific and industrial films made the cut.

Granada Int'l is set to launch a raft of brand new titles at NATPE 2007, marking its return to the main floor. Granada Int'l will be located at Booth #918.

Prescott Wright, a founder of the ASIFA-San Francisco Chapter, producer of the Tournee Of Animation for many years and a founder of the Ottawa Animation Festival passed away on Dec. 28, 2006, at a hospital in Albuquerque at the age of 71, reports Karl Cohen, animation professor/historian and president of ASIFA-SF.

He had been in slow decline for several years with Picks Disease, a form of dementia related to Alzheimer’s.